History of ISUOG Outreach:
ISUOG’s Outreach was the brainchild of Sturla Eik-Nes (ISUOG President 1998-2002) who developed these activities with support of ISUOG, the WHO and with funding from the NCFM (National Center for Fetal Medicine, Norway) and Norweigan government. His vision for the Outreach program was to reach out to countries where systematic teaching is unavailable or underdeveloped and to provide training and teaching tools for local teachers and systems for front line hands on training in order to have longer lasting effects.
The first Outreach course took place in Manilla from 1996 to 1998. The basic principles of the start up outreach courses is intensive teaching lectures, accompanied by extensive handbooks and teaching materials, together with hands on scanning workshops. The Manilla program was run through central hospital teaching programs, and key teachers were further educated at the NCFM in Norway. The ‘Teaching the Teachers’ program consists of three months or more of intensive hands on training in a centre of excellence, in this case the NCFM in Norway.
Since then Sturla Eik-Nes has co-ordinated outreach teaching activities in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kirkenes (North Norway for Russian trainees), Antalya and Singapore.
Teaching Centres
On the back of several successful outreach programs and the ‘Teach the Teacher’ training activities established in the Philippines, ISUOG Teacher Training Centres were developed. Different levels of involvement were devised with the most important one being the establishment of long term relationships with reliable institutional partners who may play, in the different countries, an active role in training and education on behalf of ISUOG. Individuals from these institutions were identified to lead these centers by demonstrating:
- good capacity for organising training meetings
- involvement of the most important institutional partners within their country
- capability to involve colleagues from adjacent countries (if applicable)in these events
Cape Town Teaching and Training Centre – established 2002
The first affiliated teaching centere was in Cape Town. ISUOG provided the centre with a donated ultrasound machine and instigated a training program. During subsequent years the center has carried out numerous courses and sonographer training through local teaching programs supporting the development of obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound in South Africa. The centre has reported their activity to ISUOG annually.
Durban program 2003 to present (ongoing)
The Post-Qualification Education in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology for Advanced Midwives has now been set up in Durban through a program starting in 2003. This long standing project has allowed for the development of log books for recording ultrasound examinations as well as quality assurance and monitoring tools. After years of intensive Outreach style teaching programs, the Durban teachers have begun in 2008 to take over the ongoing teaching of local midwife sonographers.
Training starts from the very beginning!:
(photographs from Durban training program 2005)
Singapore 2005
In 2005 ISUOG established a training center in Singapore at the Department of Maternal Fetal Medicine, KK Hospital, led by Professor George Yeo. This followed the successful 1st Outreach Course in 2005, which has taken place annually since and is aimed at delegates from all the local S.E.Asian countries. Both meetings were successful in drawing attention from perinatal medicine colleagues from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong-Kong, Vietnam. The Singapore centre oversees ISUOG training in the S E Asia region including the annual ISUOG Outreach course in Indonesia.
Haiti 2008
From December 16th – 19th 2008, the course “Introduction to Ultrasound for Obstetrics and Gynecology” was conducted in Hinche, Haiti for a group of Haitian health professionals. The course was the first of its kind to be offered in Central Haiti. The training was the culmination of the collaboration among Partners In Health/Zamni Lasante, the International Society for Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG) and GE. Each partner brought a different area of expertise to the success of the training. PIH/ZL provided the health system infrastructure, physical space and course coordination including selection of participants and implementation of the technology in the field. ISUOG, represented by Dr. Alfred Abuhamad, provided technical expertise and curriculum and course content creation. GE generously donated ten Voluson-i ultrasound units to be used at PIH/ZL sites in the Central and lower Artibonite departments as well as technical support including the creation of protocols specific to the Voluson-i for OBGYN applications.
A follow up visit to Haiti took place in May 2009 (Read more).
The ultimate aim of this outreach activity is to expand the program throughout other districts and other international sites. ISUOG's Outreach Committee and Industry/NGO liaisons are currently working towards this goal.
What has been learnt from TTCs so far:
Each country is different with different needs
It is important to:
1. understand the individual country’s culture
2. develop relationships with those involved
3. communicate with the host university leaders
4. get detailed feedback from course participants through questionnaires, course evaluation etc
5. adjust teaching to the local needs
There can never be too much hands-on training, regular visits to reinforce training are essential and teaching material must be supplied and be accessible on an ongoing basis.
