Uganda

Overview

I-TECH’s work in Uganda centers on evaluating health care training programs, in partnership with the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) at Makerere University. Initially, I-TECH lent technical assistance to the IDI and the Academic Alliance Foundation on its evaluation of a training program for health care professionals. Other activities have included evaluating the Joint Uganda Malaria Training Program (JUMP), a training program on malaria prevention, in conjunction with Makerere University-University of California, San Francisco (MU-UCSF). Currently, I-TECH is involved in creating and evaluating a capacity-building program with Accordia Global Health Foundation.

Project Highlights

Integrated Infectious Disease Capacity-Building Evaluation: An Integrated Approach to Training Midlevel Healthcare Workers in Africa

In November 2008, I-TECH partnered with the Accordia Global Health Foundation on a 3-year, $12.5 million grant to support the Integrated Infectious Disease Capacity-Building Evaluation (IDCAP). In March 2010, IDCAP began implementing a new infectious disease training package and evaluating that package’s impact on clinical skills and patient health.

The project has two primary objectives. One is to create an optimal capacity-building program for the integrated care and prevention of infectious disease—building on the hypothesis that a core curriculum focusing on mid-level practitioners, complemented by onsite support services for multidisciplinary clinic teams—can cost-effectively improve individual and clinic performances. Training mid-level practitioners to perform tasks conventionally assigned to doctors can expand the total output of health systems and could play a role in helping strained health workforces in resource-limited settings better address the needs of their patients.

The training package integrates content on HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases into three classroom courses (one core course and two “booster” courses), and onsite training at 36 health facilities throughout Uganda. The classroom training targets nurses and clinical officers, while the onsite training builds the capacity of multidisciplinary teams composed of a range of health professionals, such as medical officers and laboratory specialists. The onsite support also includes continuous quality improvement activities.

The other objective of IDCAP is to evaluate the effectiveness of the aforementioned training and the incremental impact and cost-effectiveness of the onsite support services through their staggered introduction across sites and by testing key hypotheses. The evaluation could have a major impact on the way doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are trained.

I-TECH has been integral in the course design and development and through efforts lead by Dr. Marcia Weaver and supported by Dr. Paula Brentlinger, is developing the evaluation methodology and materials.

For more information about IDCAP and for regular updates, visit the Accordia Global Health Foundation’s web page about that program.