Shared Distributed Learning for Developing Medical Informatics Capacity in Africa

描述(由申请人提供)： 该项目旨在借鉴以往赠款的经验，通过一项泛非合作倡议发展非洲医疗信息学的研究能力和培训能力，莫桑比克、乌干达、南非和津巴布韦的参与机构将在该倡议中进行合作和合作。这些合作伙伴最终将为非洲医学信息学的联合教学和研究做出贡献。这将通过分布式学习来促进。该项目将：1.继续在夸祖鲁-纳塔尔大学提供医学信息学研究生课程2.通过利用基于信息和通信技术的远程教育的合作进程，向非洲其他大学提供现有的UKZ-N医学信息学研究生教育课程。3.协助非洲其他大学建立自己的医疗信息学培训方案，办法是：a.分享课程；b.协助开发与当地要求有关的更多单元；c.分享教学和辅导人员；d.利用各种解决办法发展分布式学习；4.通过分布式学习向非洲其他大学现有的公共卫生硕士课程提供医疗信息学模块；5.为卫生部的毕业生制定医学信息学实习方案，并在工作环境中为毕业生提供持续的指导6.发展一个非洲大学联盟，提供类似标准的共享教学的医学信息学课程7.在五年内为100名受训者提供18个月的学费资助。 公共卫生相关性：医学信息学培训的必要性得到了许多人的认可，包括美国医学信息学协会。非洲缺少信息技术人员，这就要求采用创新的教学方法，共享稀缺的人力资源。该项目以在非洲建立医学信息学培训的经验教训为基础，旨在为非洲的医学信息学能力发展建立一个模式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project aims to build on the experience gained in previous grants and to develop research capacity and training capacity in medical informatics in Africa through a Pan African collaborative initiative in which participating institutions in Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe will co-operate and work together. The partners will ultimately contribute to joint teaching and research in Medical lnformatics across Africa. This will be facilitated by distributed learning. The project will: 1. Continue to offer the postgraduate programmes in medical informatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal 2. Offer the existing UKZ-N postgraduate medical informatics education programmes to other Universities in Africa through a collaborative process using ICT based distance education. 3. Assist other Universities in Africa to establish their own medical informatics training programmes by: a. Sharing curricula b. Assisting in developing additional modules relevant to local requirements c. Sharing staff for teaching and mentoring d. Distributed learning using various solutions e. Developing staff capacity 4. Offer medical informatics modules to existing MPH programmes at other Universities in Africa through distributed learning 5. Develop a medical informatics internship programme for graduates in a Ministry of Health and provide ongoing mentorship of the graduates in the work environment 6. Develop a consortium of African Universities offering medical informatics programmes of similar standard with shared teaching 7. Provide tuition fee funding for eighteen months to 100 trainees over five years. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The need for training in medical informatics is acknowledged by many, including the Amercian Medicial lnformatics Association. The shortage of informaticians in Africa requires innovative approaches to teaching and sharing of scarce human resources. This project builds on the lessons learnt in establishing medical informatics training in Africa and aims to develop a model for MI capacity development in Africa.