PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: DR. BENJAMIN AFLAKUI, MD

1. MOBILE AND E-LEARNING SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE CRITICAL HEALTH DISPARITIES IN GHANA A Cross-Cultural Collaboration between Ghana, Canada and the USA AWARDED 113,000CAD FROM GRAND CHALLENGES CANADA PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: DR. BENJAMIN AFLAKUI, MD ABSTRACT THE PROJECT This project addresses the global health issues of infant mortality and maternal health, in the context of Ghana, by utilizing distance learning methods to train Physician Assistants (PA) who can effectively function in remote and rural areas where there are no doctors. It is a project that we hope can be scaled to the rest of Africa. Our proposed project meets two of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals related to Global health: Goal #4, Reduce Child Mortality Goal #5, Improve Maternal health. It also addresses one developmental goal: Goal # 8: Develop Global Partnerships for Development. After the Dr. Aflakpui’s request, this project began as coursework in Dr. Gunawardena’s OLIT 537 and 538 classes where many students contributed to it. She went on to mentor four students in 2010 through the process of responding to a request for proposals issued by Grand Challenges Canada. The grant was written by Grace Faustino, Nicole Berezin, Caitlin Legere and Adrian Carstens with support from Dr Gunawardena, Dr Ally and Dr Palalas.The students’ proposal was awarded funding in the amount of 113,000 CAD to implement a proof of concept. This project takes an innovative approach to bring needed healthcare to the people. It blends emerging technologies with sound pedagogical principles to train medical assistants in remote areas “on the go,” greatly expanding access to health care education and services. The project will be carried out in two stages: First, training healthcare providers in their own communities, saving them the cost of completing the training in the city. Second, develop virtual networks to support physician assistants in the field, making institutional and community expertise available to mentor and support ongoing learning. The creation a global partnership (Ghana, Canada, U.S) consisting of multidisciplinary expertise to address two critical global health issues, infant mortality and maternal health in the context of Ghana, by utilizing distance learning methods to train physician assistants who can effectively function in remote and rural areas where there are no doctors, a project that we hope can be scaled to the rest of Africa. As stated in our proposal, this was a critical problem that had to be addressed immediately in Ghana. OUTCOME EVALUATION PLAN This project represents the foundation of a project that will be carried out over a period of years. There are three long-term outcomes the program: Increase in medical personnel in rural health centers(pre/post # of providers in rural medical centers) A decrease of 1% in infant and maternal mortality(patient outcomes) Increased access to medical care and personnel(wait times for treatment) PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTATION This project will develop a model for the sustainable integration of m-learning and e-learning for training health care providers in Ghana and the rest of Africa. We will build capacity at Central University College (CUC ) not only to design and deliver the physician assistant program at a distance, but also to conduct research and evaluation, thus building both distance education and research capacity in a predominantly teaching institution. A global partnership has been established to plan and implement this project. Succession planning is a key ingredient of this model as the international partners are volunteering to train personnel at CUC in the integrated distance learning model so that they will be able to take leadership as instructional designers and developers and offer the program at a distance when the project ends. THE NEED UNITED NATIONS MILLENIUM GOAL • The people of Ghana are currently severely underserved in terms of access to qualified health care providers. This problem can be attributed to a number of factors: • The costs of a traditional medical school are prohibitive for students and institutions alike, limiting how many learners can enroll in these programs • The time and money required to travel from remote areas to a campus in a major city is an additional expense and take the learner out of the communities where he or she lives and works • Fully-trained doctors tend to leave the region in search of employment opportunities in more developed nations In Ghana, the Infant Mortality rate (number of infants who die before 1 year of age) was last reported as 52 out of 1,000 live births in 2011. Ghana also has a very high maternal mortality rate, estimated at 350 deaths per 100,000 live births by the World Bank in 2010. This project seeks to reduce the number of these tragic outcomes for Ghanaians, and for Africa as a whole. Increasing access to healthcare training, in terms of both affordability and flexibility, will produce a greater number of healthcare providers who will continue to live and practice the remote, underserved communities where their professional services are needed most. THE TEAM Grace Faustino: Graduate Student Nicole Berezin: Graduate Student Caitlin Legere: Graduate Student Adrian Carstens: Graduate Student Dr. Charlotte Gunawardena: Mentor Dr. Mohammed Ally: Canadian Collaborator Dr. Aga Palalas: Canadian Collaborator