Training Programs

A Comprehensive Approach to Fighting Infectious Disease

Accordia Global Health Foundation’s Training Program at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) of Makerere University focuses on developing leaders in HIV/AIDS prevention and care, and has graduated over 3,000 African healthcare workers from 27 African countries. A number of important qualities differentiate training at IDI as a premium product in the region:

• As an independent organization within the esteemed Makerere University, IDI has unmatched access to the wealth of professional and academic expertise housed in its Faculty of Medicine.
• Through a strong relationship with the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and the network of Academic Alliance physicians through the world, Accordia attracts visiting professors, trainers and lecturers of unparalleled caliber.
• The on-site location of the IDI Adult Clinic, which attracts complicated HIV cases throughout Uganda’s referral network, gives trainees unrivaled exposure to real-time case studies. Strong ties with local partner organizations expose trainees to a wide range of clinical care settings.
• A state-of-the-art facility with advanced technology and infrastructure enables education at international standards, unhindered by delays and disruptions common to the developing world.

With a primary mission to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in Africa, Accordia’s training program launched in April 2002 to train Ugandan physicians in HIV diagnosis, care and treatment at a critical time when scale-up with antiretroviral therapy was beginning and few were trained in this specialized area. The model has grown and adapted to changing needs over time, and now also targets nurses, clinical officers, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and dispensers. In addition, Accordia and IDI have expanded their portfolio of training offerings to address other infectious diseases like malaria. Curricula are tailored to meet the needs of multidisciplinary healthcare teams, and graduates of the training program are offered on-going support services including free access to a treatment call center.

Laboratory Training

In 2006, Accordia Global Health Foundation, with generous support from BD (Becton Dickinson and Company), created the BD Laboratory Training Program at the Infectious Diseases Institute of Makerere University. The objective of this partnership is to build regional laboratory capacity, by improving technical and management skills among laboratory personnel throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Laboratory capacity is a critical component of any successful strategy to address the infectious disease crisis in Africa: quality laboratory testing is crucial to confirm clinical diagnoses, conduct accurate infectious disease surveillance, and direct public health policy. The current laboratory infrastructure in Africa is insufficient to meet the needs of a population with increasing access to medicines and other therapies.

The Laboratory Training Program is currently training leading African laboratory personnel in advanced techniques and quality assurance methods. By the end of 2008 the program will have graduated nearly 50 trainees from the intense 2-week course and supervised laboratory placement. Those trainees receive on-site support once back in their own laboratories, enabling them to more effectively build capacity and mentor others.

In 2008, Accordia once again partnered with BD to strengthen laboratory systems in Africa in support of a major public-private partnership between BD and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Accordia developed a program in which IDI provided technical assistance, curriculum development assistance, and support for BD PEPFAR volunteers and partners during their inaugural laboratory training program in Uganda. Together this partnership is working to improve overall laboratory systems and services in African countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

For more information on the Laboratory Training Program and other Accordia programs please contact [email protected].

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Malaria Training

In 2005, Accordia Global Health Foundation expanded IDI’s training program offerings by launching the Joint Uganda Malaria Training Program (JUMP) in partnership with ExxonMobil’s Africa Health Initiative. This exemplary training program executed in partnership with the Uganda Malaria Surveillance Project, experts from the University of California San Francisco and other institutes, builds capacity among African healthcare workers in malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment. By the end of 2007, almost 300 healthcare workers had completed JUMP’s multidisciplinary team-based malaria training at IDI. By 2010, JUMP will have trained 700 African healthcare professions.

Malaria is a devastating disease causing death and illness worldwide. It is a treatable disease that takes a child’s life every 30 seconds, and kills over one million people each year. In sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for over 90 percent of all malaria cases worldwide, the disease is particularly brutal on the young – children under 5 years old account for nearly 20 percent of all deaths across the continent. The crisis has grown with the AIDS epidemic: HIV and malaria each appear to make the other worse, by accelerating the course of AIDS and by increasing the frequency and severity of malarial attacks. There are effective drugs to treat malaria if administered properly, but misuse and overuse can quickly lead to resistance. There is a critical need to expand healthcare capacity to optimally diagnose and treat malaria.

JUMP takes an innovative approach to training healthcare professionals in improved malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment, by working directly with entire treatment teams at the health facility level and by building the skill sets of all clinic professionals, from medical officers to data entry clerks. JUMP then provides ongoing support and supervision to ensure the implementation of improved skills and practices, through its Mobile Support Teams, which also conduct additional training. The result for the clinic is a more effective staff and a more sustainable system of improved malaria care for its patients.

The Joint Uganda Malaria Training Program also includes novel Mobile Support and On-Going Education Teams that provide assistance to course graduates after they return to their community facilities, help graduates conduct less formal secondary training programs for their peers and colleagues, and collect data to evaluate JUMP’s impact on local health outcomes. This concept proved so effective, that it will also be employed in the Laboratory Training Program, and is being considered for IDI’s HIV/AIDS Training Program as well.

In 2007, Accordia and ExxonMobil once again joined forces to improve malaria treatment and diagnosis. ExxonMobil funded an operational research program designed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of an on-site training program incorporating rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) as compared with standard-of-care presumptive treatment, for the management of patients who present with suspected malaria at peripheral health centers in Uganda. Preliminary results indicate that this training substantially reduces the proportion of patients prescribed an antimalarial without adversely affecting outcomes, and that substantial costs savings could be achieved by scaling up this program in Uganda. Further research is planned to test the model in other African countries.

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Training Sponsorship

The Training Program at the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) provides doctors and nurses with unparalleled instruction by accomplished trainers and physicians from around the world. The world-class facilities ensure an optimal learning environment, and the on-site HIV clinic affords trainees exposure to complicated and unusual cases under the supervision of IDI clinical leadership and visiting experts. Graduates of the training program also have access to the AIDS Treatment Information Center (ATIC), a toll-free call center staffed by pharmacists and physicians who provide well-researched answers to their clinical questions.

Maintaining the excellence of the IDI training program is costly. The more than 3,000 graduates of the program have traveled from 27 countries throughout Africa to attend courses at IDI. For those unable to afford the tuition and travel expense, Accordia Global Health Foundation makes Training Scholarships available.

Through the generosity of corporate and individual donors, Accordia is able to provide financial assistance to many doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals whose salaries will not support the program’s expense. Often, those who need assistance most are precisely those whose jobs are the most challenging: treating thousands of people living with HIV in rural areas without access to specialized clinics or referral hospitals. IDI’s training program alumni return to their home clinics equipped to train their peers, and provide quality healthcare in their communities.

For information on how you can sponsor a trainee, please contact Alissa Oram.

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