A NAME for Health — A Network Approach in Medical Education for the Pursuit of Quality of HEIs and Health Systems

The insufficient and inappropriate health care delivery to the populations of Angola and Mozambique, in the areas of maternal and child health care and infectious diseases, emerges as a major concern in these two countries.

Reducing maternal death and illness is recognized as a moral and human rights imperative, as well as a crucial national and international development priority; infectious diseases are also a major health problem, leading to huge

implications on the health systems. The core problem is the deficit of basic health care to the populations, as identified and stated in different Health Indicators Reports, and is associated with two specific problems: deficit in Medical Education and deficit in Clinical Practice. Therefore, a joint intervention of Education – Medical Schools – and Health – Health Units – is crucial.

“A NAME for Health” will enable to bridge the gap between Education and Health Systems through effective institutional networking. This will evolve from Medical Education to Clinical Practice, displaying a structured organisation where the intersection point between both fields is production and transfer of knowledge, aiming to achieve high standards of clinical competence.

The project aims to improve health through Medical Education, linking and empowering partner HEIs devoted to the education of medical professionals. The specific objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of partner institutions to improve academic competencies and clinical expertise in priority health areas (maternal and child health care and infectious diseases) related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Main Project Activities

The activities proposed result from the analysis of the needs identified at the partner HEIs and, if carried out through the global approach of Medical Education, will provide the sustaintability of the project. The partner institutions will be strengthened and empowered in terms of the capacity to improve clinical and scientific/pedagogical competences in the priority areas through a network in medical education/clinical practice.

The Backbone of the Project: Structuring Activities

The initial set of activities, which are transversal to the whole project, becomes a means towards its development, which enables the execution and sustainability of NAME. This important set of activities will comprise:

Establishment of Centers for Medical Education, to serve continuous professional development dedicated to the improvement of health standards through better education, training, research and other related programmes for health professionals;
Creating a Technological Platform Network in terms of communication between the different institutions (e-learning and long-distance learning);
Establishment of Student Offices to provide support measures to students as coaching and counselling, welfare services, activities aiming at social integration and services to students with special needs and other support measures.

Enhancing Excellence and Quality in Medical Education

The project will develop a common framework for quality assurance, based on internationally recognised principles of an initial self-assessment, a peer review and report, followed by actions aiming to ensure quality improvement. These are academic activities, to be undertaken according to the institutional status of educational paradigms and involve:

Assessment of the undergraduate medical curriculum;
Curriculum reform and follow-up of the curriculum development process;
IT seminar/conference

Clinical faculty/physicians mobility programme to improve educational/clinical skills

Mobility programmes for clinical faculty/physicians play an essential role in sharing experiences in the models of teaching and learning in medicine, and as a source of different experiences in University and Healh Systems. These clinical activities are focused in three priority areas: Paediatrics, Gynecology & Obstetrics and Infectious Diseases, and will be developed through the establishment of a mobility programme for clinical faculty/physicians.

Reviews will be published when available

Ultimately, it is expected that a quality cycle of education/clinical practice will be created through “A NAME for Health” which, by transfer of specific knowledge and supported by information technologies, will improve the competencies of the target groups at the under- and postgraduate levels of medical education. This will create a dynamics of institutional “brain gain”, multiplied at the inter-institutional level, and provide academic/clinical quality. In the long term, the populations of Angola and Mozambique will therefore be the ultimate beneficiaries of the project.

Grant:

197637

Project duration:

24 moths (23/12/2008 - 22/12/2011)

EU funding:

EUR 454,223.00

Total budget:

EUR 664,863.00

Project contact:

Maria Amélia Ferreira, MD, PhD
Center for Medical Education
Faculty of Medicine of
the University of Porto

Alameda Hernâni Monteiro
P-4200-319 Porto
Portugal

Tel: +351 22 5513611
Email: gem@med.up.pt

Project website: Project's website

Factsheet(s):

EN A Name for Health.pdf

Ana Godinho

Maria Am Ferreira

Welcome to EDULINK

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… financed by the European Union and Implemented by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat, the programme supports cooperative projects between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the ACP Group of States, the EU Member States and other eligible countries. more about EDULINK...