The Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine has established a new center
designed to provide clinical training to health care
providers in parts of the world where resources and
infrastructure are limited or lacking. Called the Center
for Clinical Global Health Education, the new operation
aims to use advanced telemedicine technology and Johns
Hopkins experts to provide clinical training to health care
workers around the world in an efficient and cost-effective
manner.
"Recently, many donors have made it possible to obtain
HIV/AIDS medications for some of those infected adults and
children in resource-limited settings," Robert Bollinger,
director of the new center, said. "Unfortunately, these
medications help only a fraction of these infected
populations. These countries lack experienced, trained
health care providers to dispense the drugs effectively and
safely. Professionals need to be properly trained, and
that's where the center can help."
So far, more than 50 different countries have
expressed interest in the center's programs.
As one of its first projects, the CCGHE will initiate
an intensive, interactive HIV training program at the BJ
Medical College in Pune, India, in November. It will
include more than 20 live telemedicine lectures by JHU
faculty for frontline Indian physicians. The CCGHE has also
started specialized clinical education programs in Ethiopia
and the Congo and will facilitate clinical research
collaboration among participating institutions in these
countries.
Alexander Nason, director of the Johns Hopkins
Office of Telemedicine and director of Johns Hopkins
Interactive, said, "Telemedicine and Web-based learning
tools provide easy and relatively affordable ways to create
links between Hopkins and international care providers. We
are very happy to collaborate with the CCGHE."
Funded initially by the School of Medicine, the CCGHE
plans to maintain operations through donations from
individuals and companies in the United States and
abroad.
For more information about the Center for Clinical
Global Health Education, go to
www.ccghe.jhmi.edu.
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