International cooperation in the field of health professions education

1. International Cooperation
for Health Professions
Education
Hirotaka Onishi MD, MHPE
Int’l Research Center for Medical
Education, University of Tokyo

2. Need for International
Educational Assistance
 MDG (Millennium Development Goal) has
been common goals for international
assistance
 2015 is the target year.
 Currently new initiatives are discussed.
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)
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3. Goals
Goal 1 Eradicate extreme poverty
and hunger
Goal 2 Achieve universal primary
education
Goal 3 Promote gender equality and
empower women
Goal 4 Reduce child mortality
Goal 5 Improve maternal health
Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria,
and other diseases
Goal 7 Ensure environmental
sustainability
Goal 8 Develop a global partnership
for development
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4. Goals and Targets for
Health
 Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
 Target 5. Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and
2015, the under-five mortality rate
 Goal 5: Improve maternal health
 Target 6. Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and
2015, the maternal mortality ratio
 Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
 Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the
spread of HIV/AIDS
 Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the
incidence of malaria and other major diseases
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6. Themes for International
Cooperation Projects
 Infectious diseases
 AIDS, Tb, Malaria, Enterocolitis…
 Maternal & child health (MCH)
 Traditional birth attendants (TBA) retraining
 New human resource development (HRD)
programme for primary nurses/midwives
 Campaign for delivery in health care facility
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7. Vertical vs Horizontal
 Vertical
 Project theme is focused (e.g. AIDS), so that
intervention and evaluation is easier
 Economical gap between developed and developing
countries becomes smaller, then presence of large
foundation increased (e.g. Bill and Mellinda Gates
Foundation 287 mil USD for AIDS vaccine in 2006)
 Systematic problems remain untreated
 Horizontal
 More system-oriented approach
 Fair distribution to vulnerable population
 Contribution from industries became more difficult
 After 2010 horizontal approach is more preferred than before.
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8. Universal Health Coverage
(UHC)
 Main topic for new post-MDG initiatives
 Broadest horizontal approach
 Four requirements
 Strong, efficient, well-run health system
 System for financing health services
 Access to essential medicines and technologies
 Sufficient capacity of well-trained, motivated
health workers
 Specific objectives are still under discussion
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9. Education vs Human Resource
Development (HRD)
 Health professional education is often
regarded as health not education in a
governmental structure
 Assistance organizations see education as
literacy, elementary school, disability, etc
 Universities/schools for health workers are
governed by either MOH or MOE
 HRD needs more systematic approach
 Often called as HR for health (HRH)
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10. HRH Issues
 Policy
 Number of health care workers (quantity)
 Rules & regulations
 Education/curriculum (quality)
 Related issues: culture, religion, gender,
income (dual practice), urban vs rural,
specialization vs generalism…
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11. Student-centeredness
 Health professions education should change
even in developing countries because:
 Information explosion – update is continuously
needed. Knowledge base never becomes perfect.
 The role of professors to provide information
relatively becomes less important.
 Facilitating role for learners and patients becomes
more important due to larger autonomy.
 New educational and learning theories follow
above changes.
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12. Sustainable Development
Goals
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13. Discussion Theme
 Suppose you are a staff in an NGO in your
selective developing country. Chairman of the
NGO asked you to start a project there.
 Search the information about policy and
health indices of the country.
 Select one theme of a project and state the
relevance of it to the policy and health
indices.
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