Virtual Health Technology Training for Latin America and the Caribbean Tobey Clark, Director*, Burlington USA Alexandre Lemgruber, Regional Advisor in Health Technologies, Pan American Health Organization, Washington DC USA Rossana Rivas, Senior Advisor*, Lima Peru * WHO Collaborating Center for Health Technology Management Presentation #160 Fourth WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices

Fourth WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices Disclosure The presenter declares no conflict of interest with the materials provided. Fourth WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices

The value of virtual courses for global health technology training Healthcare technology is rapidly expanding in the developing world Capacity building is needed in the area of biomedical technology and its management Online training is becoming a viable and impacting option worldwide due to the availability of communication networks and devices The educational resources of the World Wide Web are tremendous There are no costs or lost time for travel to a classroom Online training’s asynchronous nature allows maximum flexibility for study and assignment completion time. New technologies such as virtual reality for hands-on activities

Bi-lingual Technical Course 1: Basic – Patient Care Equipment Healthcare Technology Overview, Environment of Care & Standards Preventing and Resolving Equipment Problems Quality Assurance, PM and Troubleshooting Human body Engineering Concepts and Principles Technology with focus on electrical Measurement and diagnostic instruments Electrocardiography Cardiovascular Pulse oximetry Fetal and neonatal monitoring Therapy devices Defibrillators/Pacemakers Incubators/Infant Warmers/Phototherapy Infusion and medication technology Ventilators

Bi-lingual Technical Course 2: Advanced – Medical Systems and Technology Imaging Technologies Image Quality Radiography Fluoroscopy Computed Tomography Nuclear Medicine Magnetic Resonance Imaging Ultrasound Medical Imaging Networks Advanced Technologies Radiation Therapy Systems Telemedicine Clinical Engineering/IT Collaboration Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery Electrosurgery Medical Lasers Clinical Laboratory Physical Therapy Equipment

Overall International Results: 2007 - 2018 Over 1000 students from 40 countries have taken course Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua, St. Lucia, Belize, British Virgin Islands, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Turks & Caicos, France, Spain, China, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Barbuda, Guyana, Bahamas, Anguilla, Honduras, Cuba, El Salvador, Panamá, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and the USA

Healthcare Technology Planning and Management online course Originally taught at University of Vermont beginning in 2008 The Spanish version developed using the content of the English course translated and adapted to Latin America with additional content creation Taught on the PAHO Virtual Campus for Public Health in 2015 and 2017

PAHO Virtual Campus for Public Health: Healthcare Technology Planning & Management course Teaches best practices to follow over the healthcare technology life cycle For adult learners working in various leadership and technical capacities https://www.campusvirtualsp.org/en

Healthcare Technology Planning & Management 2017 course Results: Healthcare Technology Planning & Management 2017 course High level of participant engagement on in discussion forums with other students and instructors Average of 2.5 quality posts by each student for each discussion question with constructive responds to other students showing outstanding interaction leading to high value 95% overall satisfaction Reports focused on countries projects and were of high quality

Planned Improvements and Future Activities Courses to be offered by PAHO in 2019 Highlight more practical elements of HT planning and management by providing more real life case studies from Latin America and the Caribbean Due to the high degree of inter-action and networking taking place on the discussion board, this high value area should be graded with a higher weight Add additional webinars to the course as this promotes strong interaction and net- working Continuing online forums and webinars following the course to continue engagement Correct platform problems especially those related to long exams Develop Portuguese and French course adapted to Brazil and Francophone countries respectively

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Primary contact: tobey.clark@uvm.edu Questions? Primary contact: tobey.clark@uvm.edu