IPSF Education

June 2011
World leaders to debate role of education in development (ECOSOC, Geneva, 4-8 July)

In a keynote address on 4 July, Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO is to plead for commitment to education from the highest levels of government and international bodies. At a prior event, she will join UN officials and schoolchildren to urge world leaders to redouble their efforts to put education at the centre of development. ECOSOC is a major forum for discussing world issues and preparing policy recommendations for Member States and the UN system. Its Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) is to assess progress on the education-related Millennium Development Goals; highlight the links between education and other internationally agreed goals; act as a catalyst towards the achievement of the education-related goals; encourage countries to launch initiatives in support of education and achieve broad multi-stakeholder engagement notably through a series of regional preparatory meetings.

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Ms Bokova, Mr Tang, the Assistant Director-General for Education and other UNESCO representatives will visit the Innovation Fair, where the Organization is showcasing its work on capacity development. The innovative approach of UNESCOs CapEFA programme will be highlighted. The expected outcome of the 2011 AMR session will be the Ministerial Declaration on "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to education". Related Links ECOSOC Websiste Education for All (EFA)

Graduate careers: EU changes pave way for new healthcare roles

The Guardian, UK 18/06/2011 Anna Tims The European Commission clampdown on doctors' working hours has opened a new career path for UK graduates wondering what to do with a science degree. Physicians' assistants are an emerging breed of healthcare professionals trained to relieve the pressure on overstretched doctors in hospitals, GPs' surgeries and community services. The idea, borrowed from the US, which devised the role 40 years ago to overcome a shortage of physicians, has now translated into the first wave of UK-trained recruits who will join a medical team supervised by a doctor and have powers including the diagnosis and referral of patients and the analysis of test results. The career is an appealing alternative for graduates who would like to work in the frontline of the health sector but without committing to five years in medical school. Graduates with a degree in life or health-related sciences can earn the necessary qualification in a two-year degree course at St George's Medical School in London, and Birmingham and Wolverhampton universities have launched two-year postgraduate diploma courses in general medicine. Jonathan Ogidi was among the first tranche of physician assistants to graduate from St George's last September and has joined the hospital's trauma and orthopaedics team. "The training offered me a different kind of skill set and the opportunity to remain in general medicine rather than having to specialise," he says. Originally a biomedical science graduate from Sheffield, Ogidi says that the role, which is still an unregistered profession, is being developed from scratch. "We're gradually beginning to understand how PAs can be useful," he says. "No one was sure initially how we would fit in, but I've been assigned a mentor and I'm now working with every consultant in the department." Page | 2

The idea is to train students in general medicine covering a broad spectrum of healthcare so that they can take on some of the non-specialised functions of a doctor. As experience is gained, they can take increasing responsibility at the discretion of a supervising doctor or surgeon, although as yet they have no powers to prescribe medicines. "The role is an extension of what physicians do, but always as part of a team," says Joel Grey, course leader at St George's. "The attraction for physicians is that assistants are a permanent member of a team, unlike a junior doctor who might move on after a few months just after they've been trained up. It will suit people who want to be part of a team but have no desire to captain the ship." Newly fledged assistants can expect to start on around 24,000 but salaries rise with experience and could reach 45,000. The career is not, alas, a short cut to a fullyfledged doctor's career. Although physician assistant training encompasses many of the elements that doctors study, those wishing to upgrade will need to apply from scratch for a full-length course at medical school.

How Cell Phones, Mobile Devices, iPhones Save Lives in Poor Countries
ABC News 10/06/2011

By DANA HUGHES ABC News' correspondent Dana Hughes reports from the Mobile Health Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. More than 5 billion people in the world today have cell phones, and they are doing a lot more than just talking. Globally, people are using mobile phones to surf the web, telecommute and, increasingly in the developing world, send and receive money. The next revolution will not be televised, technology experts say, but be driven by devices that fit into the palm of your hand. Part of that revolution is using mobile technology to deliver and track health care services, a practice referred to as mhealth. While people in the United States and Europe are focused on how the latest iPhone app will make their lives easier, wireless technology is literally saving lives in poor countries such as those in Africa and Asia. A new WHO report, "mHealth: New Horizons for Health through Mobile Technologies," focuses on the impact mobile devices and the Internet are having on global access to health care. The report, launched at the Mobile Health Summit held in Cape Town, South Africa. this week, finds that more than 70 percent of mobile subscribers live in low- and middle-income countries.

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It also says that commercial wireless signals cover more than 85 percent of the world. Places that might have no electricity or a safe water supply could easily have cellphone coverage. But having seemingly high-tech advancement in places lacking basic infrastructure isn't only a problem; it's also an opportunity. "Things that are being learned in Africa can be used in other parts of the world, including the United States," said Adele Waugaman, senior director of Technology Partnerships for the United Nations Foundation, which supported the WHO study. The U.N. Foundation and telecommunication giant Vodacom have been partnering for the past five years to try and fund innovative mhealth projects. One of their most successful is DataDyne, a company founded by Dr. Joel Selanikio of the United States. Selanikio started his career in IT, went to medical school and eventually specialized in global health with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His frustration working in Africa, where health policy decisions were being made based on often slow and outdated data, led him to create EpiSurveyor, a mobile application using the Web that allows community health workers in even the most remote parts of the world to record and report health information almost instantaneously. "We have a system online where anybody can go to the Website Episurveyor.org and in five minutes create a form and share it with mobile phones around the world, and have those mobile phones be sending information back by a simple text message," Selanikio said ABC News. He acknowledged that not all global health problems will be fixed using technology but said, "We can fix one problem, which is the data collection part. We can nail that one down, and that's what we've done with EpiSurveyor." Mobenzi, a South African-based mhealth company, focuses on both data collection and patient care. Their mobile app allows health workers to schedule appointments, pull up a patient's file and even send photos to a specialist online who can help with a diagnosis. "It takes off a lot of the pressure on the traditional health facilities," Andi Friedman, one of Mobenzi's partners, said. "It allows us to extend the level of care we can provide in the field. The mobilization of this really sophisticated capability is really the point here." Companies, Governments and Health Care Pros Come Together At the Mobile Summit, health care professionals, humanitarian groups, mobile network operators and government representatives also discussed some of the challenges with mhealth. For example many programs are still in the pilot stages, governments have yet to regulate issues such as patient confidentiality and liability, and network operators and other telecommunications industry groups want mhealth to develop an eco-system that will be a financially sustainable business model. No one expects to get rich but the general consensus was that if mhealth is based solely on philanthropic funding, the innovation will not survive. Page | 4

Craig Friderichs works with the mobile health initiative for GSMA, a global trade organization for the world's largest GSM network operators including Vodacom, AT&T and Orange. GSMA and the Mobile Health Alliance sponsored the summit precisely to get groups and individuals working in mhealth to address those challenges, as well as share successes. "We can really transmit or help patients at the bottom of the pyramid in the poorest communities, in the most under-serviced communities, with the most basic phones and connectivity," Friderichs said. "And we believe that the reach or the penetration of mobile into these underserviced communities and the ubiquity that mobile is bringing to these communities has the potential to literally revolutionize the way we deliver health care services."

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