Posted on: Sat 03-05-2014

Dear HIFA colleagues,

A comment in The Lancet (12 April 2014) asks 'What could you do to support medical care in developing countries? This question should be compelling to many physicians in developed regions of the world [...] the most important thing that can be done is to build capacity for sustainable self-sufficiency...'

The authors describe how the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) has built such capacity over the past 30 years, with potential for adaptation/duplication in other specialties.

Below is the citation and selected extracts:

CITATION: Nephrology in developing countries: the ISN's story.
John Feehally aEmail Address, William Couser a, Sophie Dupuis a, Fredric Finkelstein a, Paul Harden a, David Harris a, Norbert Lameire a, Sarala Naicker a, Giuseppe Remuzzi a, Luca Segantini a, Marcello Tonelli a, The Lancet, Volume 383, Issue 9925, Pages 1271 - 1272, 12 April 2014 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62711-7 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)62711-7/fulltext

SELECTED EXTRACTS

'Since the 1980s, the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) has used its resources for education and training and, in doing so, advanced nephrology in LMICs worldwide through a portfolio of five outreach programmes. These programmes, delivered at very low cost, are a model for what can be achieved by volunteers in a specialist society or other group committed to helping patients and colleagues in developing countries. [...]

'ISN also supports about 50 continuing medical education programmes a year in LMICs, providing international experts who supplement local speakers and also meet with local health-care leaders—sometimes health ministers—to assess needs and opportunities for nephrology and work out how ISN can contribute. [...]

'The ISN's model and achievements provide a meaningful answer to how medical care in developing countries might be improved. We recommend our model to other professional medical societies and to individuals who want to help make a real and lasting difference in health care in developing regions of the world.'

For more on ISN's outreach programmes, see: http://www.theisn.org/go

Best wishes,
Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge: Join HIFA www.hifa2015.org

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA campaign (Healthcare Information For All) and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network. He is also currently chair of the Dgroups Foundation (www.dgroups.info), a partnership of 18 international development organisations promoting dialogue for international health and development. He started his career as a hospital doctor in the UK, and has clinical experience as an isolated health worker in rural Ecuador and Peru.  For the last 20 years he has been committed to the global challenge of improving the availability and use of relevant, reliable healthcare information for health workers and citizens in low- and middle-income countries. He is also interested in the wider potential of inclusive, interdisciplinary communication platforms to help address global health and international development challenges. He has worked with the World Health Organization, the Wellcome Trust, Medicine Digest and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications). He is based near Oxford, UK.
www.hifa2015.org  [email protected]

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