IAPAC teams with DiData to provide e-learning

E-learning project for Aids kicks off in SA E-learning is set to assist Sub-Saharan Africa in the much-needed education of its health workers on Aids. The International Association of Physicians in Aids Care (IAPAC) is working with Dimension Data in a project aimed at developing knowledge and skills, two powerful weapons in response to the disease.

Sub Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of the world`s HIV-infected people, some 25 million individuals.

Against this shocking statistic is the stark lack of human resources to deal with the disease. Many doctors and other health professionals lack the basic knowledge to provide the best care practices that can influence the lives of millions of Aids sufferers. "We are extremely ill-prepared to handle this epidemic and its associated diseases," says Dr Shaun Conway, executive director for Southern Africa at IAPAC.

According to Conway, Sub Saharan Africa urgently needs to make the training of health workers a reality as little has been done to meet the enormous need for information.

"Knowledge on how to best to manage HIV is still evolving, so new HIV research findings should be rapidly translated into practice. We therefore need information, training and knowledge to support best practices with innovative ways to leverage the few resources available into scaled-up responses."

One of the main goals of IAPAC, which has a global membership of 12 000 health professionals in 52 countries, is to improve the treatment of HIV/Aids through developing the knowledge and skills of health professionals, as well as implementing innovative programmes of technical support that facilitate expanded access to quality HIV/AIDS care.

"As one way to fulfil our goal of meeting the global HIV education challenge, we launched an innovative programme, I-Med Exchange, that brings connectivity, remote support and distance learning to health workers across the Sub Saharan Africa region. The involvement of Dimension Data and its US-based e-learning partner, Centra, has been crucial in creating the robust platform and tools needed to achieve this," says Conway.

"We took the decision to actively assist IAPAC in its fight against HIV/Aids by substantially subsiding the costs of the Centra software," says Johann Coetzee, managing director of Dimension Data i-Commerce Software.

IAPAC`s I-Med Exchange runs on Centra Symposium software, which offers a complete set of capabilities for live e-learning in a scaleable, extensible and easily deployed thin-client Web application. It enables large groups of people to interact, collaborate and learn in real-time over intranets, extranets and the Internet.

"I-Med Exchange enables us to interact with various global organisations and individual world experts via virtual meetings and to train health workers across the region. We will also be delivering e-seminars that bring renowned HIV/AIDS teachers and researchers to remotely situated doctors in the region, thanks to the software," he says.

"Another important benefit will be that dispersed clinicians and researchers will now be able to share their knowledge and experiences of what works. This will also build a sense of community among the dedicated professionals who often feel isolated as they battle the epidemic with very little support from others.

"Dimension Data, which implemented the e-learning software solution and also provide IT services, was really supportive and highly efficient. The first virtual meeting using the software in SA took place last month, with a task team of the South African National Aids Council (SANAC). They were very impressed and felt the software was easy to use," says Conway.

Health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa will soon be able to enrol in formal e-learning programmes. Not only will they be trained within individual seminars, but they will also be able to enrol in programmes of learning that will lead to international certification in HIV medicine or to an HIV diploma. "The quality and scope of Aids care will escalate and hopefully we will be able to combat the disease more effectively," says Conway.

IAPAC hopes that with I-Med Exchange they will become the main Aids information service for health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. "Our aim is to build up a care knowledge base and to contribute to content development through our e-learning software," he says.