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by Kate Mayer
June 2009
Harvard Team (L to R):
Chris Spirito, Neel Butala,
Dr. Kariuki, Dr. Ades,
Dr. Kiweewa
Harvard University and San Francisco State University created courses for the International Telemedicine Network (ITN), which launched its ITNhealth.net website
earlier this month. These are the first two courses—modules—developed specifically for the ITN, rather than adapted from existing taped seminars. Although it is useful
for healthcare providers in many countries, the Harvard course on TB-HIV co-infection was designed with East African physicians in mind. The San Francisco State
course on diabetes was created primarily for an international audience of nurses.
The ITN is a consortium of teaching hospitals, research institutes, and non-profit organizations. Coordinated by WiRED International, the ITN offers up-to-date medical information and continuing medical education to doctors in disadvantaged countries. Over the next few months, the ITN website will be expanding, adding many new courses as more consortium members contribute content, responding to international needs.
WiRED checked in with team members of both San Francisco State and Harvard University to ask about the process and glean insights from their experiences. Here are some of their responses.
On the Work
Lynette Landry, RN, PhD
San Francisco State University Team
Our team came together because we realized that nurses working around the world need the most up-to-date information regarding acute and chronic diseases if they are going to meet the challenges of providing care to the communities that they serve.
Chris Spirito, MITRE
Harvard University Team
MITRE and WiRED now have a long relationship of working together and I think this is one of the best products to date. It was an especially good example of
WiRED, Partners Healthcare Center for Connected Health, and MITRE coming together with a group of international students from the Harvard School of Public Health to create a valuable healthcare education module.
Neel Butala
Harvard University Team
For the most part, our work consisted of getting an idea of what is out there in terms of online Continuing Medical Education (CME) for physicians, assessing the needs of physicians in East Africa through a survey, and then developing a module to suit the unique needs of physicians in these developing countries. We selected TB-HIV as our first topic because of its salience to the dire healthcare situation in Kenya and Uganda.
Paul Heinzelmann, MD, MPH
Harvard University Team
By starting with a clearly defined need from the community we aimed to assist, the group knew that their hard work would be of great value.
Veronica Ades, MD, MPH
Harvard University Team
We included information about diagnosis, treatment, clinical presentation, drug interactions, side effects and toxicity, special circumstances, as well as regional information about co-infection for three countries…. [It] can be read linearly or as separate pieces. This way, a physician wanting to know more about the problem could read the entire module, or could jump among segments to glean the information she or he is looking for.
On the Partnership with WiRED
Lynette Landry, RN, PhD
San Francisco State University Team
First, we would like to acknowledge the work of WIRED, Gary Selnow, and the incredible team that has been formed to develop the ITN. WIRED and ITN have made this project a reality and we are truly appreciative that we have been given the opportunity to share our expertise in the development of the content areas focused on nursing.
Beatrice Kariuki, MD, MPH
Harvard University Team
The WiRED ITN team experience was excellent. In addition to creating a prototype module, we also thought critically about what service delivery model WiRED would use to successfully provide online CME opportunities to East Africa and other developing countries.
Francis Kiweewa, MD, MPH
Harvard University Team
On my part, I learned a lot from the group. Working with the
WiRED group strengthened my belief in having the inputs of
those for which programs are intended right from the design
stage. With technical support from WiRED, I think our team—together
with the East African physicians—will be able to come up with a peer-reviewed
CME module that is acceptable to all.
On the Team Process
Lynette Landry, RN, PhD
San Francisco State University Team
Though we have a core group of members (Lynette Landry, Harvey "Skip" Davis, Alice Privé, and Lena Zhang), we would like to acknowledge the contributions of our content experts (Amalia Flyes and Linda Michaels). It has been important to the success of the project that we all have a passion to assure that healthcare providers have the information they need to be able to provide the care that is required in a given situation.
Paul Heinzelmann, MD, MPH
Harvard University Team
It was very satisfying to connect WiRED and the ITN with such a talented group of local students and professionals on the completion of this module. I would recommend that consortium members look to incorporate local professional student groups into the creation of modules and content if possible. The students are bright, hardworking and the experience allows them to contribute in a meaningful way.
Lena Zhang, PhD
San Francisco State University Team
For the nursing module I have been working with Lynette’s group. It is a new challenge and exciting opportunity to explore new ways to develop and
deliver the educational content and it has been great to work with the experts
from the ITN web team. I am excited about the opportunity to work with WIRED
and ITN.
Chris Spirito, MITRE
Harvard University Team
What was probably most remarkable during the 15 or so weeks that we focused on this project was how each team member really contributed a unique perspective to bring together an innovative product.
Editing by Annie Stuart, layout by Brian Colombe.
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