Blog entry … Tuesday, Feb 26
By Ray Rogers, CEO National Center for Health Care Informatics, Montana Tech, University of Montana.
We arrived in Abuja, Nigeria (the Capital city) on an 8:00 pm flight from Amsterdam. Flying over the immense Sahara Desert gives one a true sense of the size and uniqueness of the African Continent. Upon arriving in Abjua, our first sensations were of the heat, the ever-present dust in the air from the Sahara winds (Harmattan), and the smell of smoke from thousands of fires used for cooking and as a source of light.
Our hosts from the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria provided us with very nice accommodations for the evening, and we headed off to Jos (Plateau State) the four hour drive. Along the way, I witnessed great disparity in wealth, including extreme poverty. The roads were packed with cars laden down with people and possessions, many people walking and thousands of people along the roadsides selling their wares. I was struck by the immense amount of plastics (bags) littering the roadsides and fields, trash that cannot degrade and continues to remain in the environment.
Upon leaving the busy city of Abuja, we entered the rural villages on the northeast drive to Jos. Along the drive, villagers had set up public markets to sell bread, fruits, yams, tomatoes, onions, peppers and other items. Occasionally we would see small schools with children dressed in colorful uniforms. The slow-paced villages with thatched-roof mud huts or tin roofs are in stark contrast to the busyness of the large cities of Abuja and Jos.
We arrived at 12:30 pm to a wonderful welcoming reception at the Our Lady Of Apostles (OLA) Hospital in Jos. Everyone we have met has been extremely welcoming and has made us feel right at home. We immediately launched into our Safe Passages training which George and Bob will describe. I provided an overview of information technology and what we were attempting to accomplish by connecting OLA hospital to Montana Tech and other parts of the world to support their clinical and medical teaching needs.
The interest and response was overwhelming. They can not wait to have access to better IT tools, and welcome the opportunity to work with our team. I also worked closely with Dr. Sam Inyang to access the OLA network. By the end of the day we had completed a successful video session, using their wireless Internet, between OLA and Mike Kukay of the National Center for Health Care Informatics at Montana Tech. Over the next few days, we will begin to conduct more advanced tests. We have made arrangements for increased bandwidth for tests on Thursday and Friday morning (Montana time).
Our evening ended with a wonderful cocktail hour and dinner in the courtyard of OLA complete with entertainment. We ended the day quite late and look forward to busy and productive Wednesday.
Wednesday am …. I started my day by getting to sit in on a cesarean section and witnessed the delivery of a healthy baby boy. Dr. Bob Scanlon conducted the procedure before a group of medical residents. We are now teaching and getting ready to conduct another IT test. More later…..
Comments from Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones:
Ray did a super job describing things. I would add a couple of notes - it really is great to have Ray and Bob, who really are first class persons and great teachers.
Second, one always wonders "do our efforts make any difference?" It was gratifying to hear the reports of some of those who have participated in past trainings. A number of them said how much the training has improved their maternal and newborn outcomes. They are now using a bag and mask for newborn resucitation, and instead of having asphyxiated babies with neurologic compromise, they are having babies who are nicely resucitated. They have good outcomes with the soft cup vacuum extractors. They are passing down the training to other midwives and physicians and elevating the standard of care.
We see "Safe Passages" posters in the labor and delivery wards - and the awareness that all women should have a safe birth has defintely taken root. Hey ... thanks for your support ... more later!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Team Biographies
Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones
President and Medical Director -- Maternal Life International
Dr. Mulcaire-Jones is a native of and attended high school in East Helena, Montana, where he was a member of the varsity football team, American Legion baseball team and a volunteer for Big Brothers and Sisters. He worked summers at the ASARCO Smelter as a yard and zinc furnace laborer.
He attended Carroll College, Helena, Montana, on an Elsie Corrette Memorial Scholarship, majoring in premed biology. After three years of college, he entered the University of Washington Medical School, graduating with an MD degree in 1981. While attending the university, he was a volunteer at Seattle’s Catholic Worker Kitchen, a downtown Seattle Free Clinic.
His medical internship and residency was at Deaconess Hospital, Spokane; a Family Practice Residency at the University of Minnesota; a surgery internship at St. Peter’s Hospital, Helena; and an obstetric fellowship at Sacred Heart and Deaconess hospitals, Spokane. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Family Practice.
Mulcaire-Jones began his family medical practice in 1984 in Long Beach and Anaheim, California with the Mission Doctors Association, transferring to Cameroon, West Africa later that year. He returned to America in 1987 and continued his practice in the Seattle area before moving to Butte, Montana, in 1992. He is active in the medical and civic community of Butte, having served on the board of the YMCA, as co-chair of the St. James Hospital Ethics Committee, and as co-coordinator for the Butte-Silver Bow Suicide Prevention Task Force
In 1997, he formed what eventually became Maternal Life International, a nonprofit organization providing training and resource support for AIDS prevention and care, and maternal health services to developing countries, mainly in Africa. Dr. Jones is an
acknowledged expert and has spoken at numerous national conferences on these issues, including a US-sponsored United Nations panel on the causes of maternal mortality; the Authentic Women’s Health Care Conference at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and the United States National Aids Conference.
Dr. Jones was awarded the Charles Borromeo Humanitarian Award from his Alma Mater in 2001, the highest award Carroll College bestows.
While living in Butte, Dr. Mulcaire-Jones has been a little league baseball coach and a youth soccer league coach. George and his wife, Mary, have six children.
Dr. Robert F Scanlon Jr.
Director of Maternal Health Services and Board Member
Maternal Life International
Dr. Robert Scanlon Jr. is a native of Huntington, New York, where he presently is in private practice at the North Shore Medical Group, attending physician at Huntington Hospital. He is a Clinical Instructor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, and Director of Maternal Health Services and Board Member of Maternal Life International, Butte, Montana.
Dr. Scanlon earned a BS in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University in 1978, an MBA from Duke University in 1981 and an MD from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University. His post-graduate studies include a Family Medicine Rotating Internship and an Obstetrics/Gynecology Specialty residency, both at the University Hospital, Stony Brook, New York. He is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with the most recent recertification in 2006.
Dr. Scanlon’s international work includes fistula surgical repair at the Baptist Medical Center in Ghana and emergency obstetrical care instruction and training in Nigeria with a Maternal Life International team of specialists.
He coaches basketball, baseball and softball in his spare time. He and his wife, Cathleen, live in Huntington, New York with their three children; Robert, Timmy and Elizabeth.
Raymond F. (Ray) Rogers
CEO National Center for Health Care Informatics
Raymond F. (Ray) Rogers is the Chief Executive Officer for the National Center for Health Care Informatics (NCHCI) in Butte, Montana, and a faculty member at Montana Tech of the University of Montana. Rogers has more than 20 years experience in higher education, administration, management, fundraising, marketing, and business development. He holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering and a MS in Technical Communications.
In 2001, he led the effort on behalf of the Montana University System to create the nation’s first undergraduate degree in Health Care Informatics. He now serves as CEO of the NCHCI, a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the management of health care data, information and knowledge. Through the NCHCI, he has built awareness and encouraged the board adoption of electronic health records, personal health records, and health information exchange. He was instrumental in developing a $250,000 multi-way, interactive, Internet II communication laboratory operated by the NCHCI.
Rogers is leading a number of significant educational, business development, and research and development efforts through the NCHCI. He is the national co-chair of the educational committee for the Healthcare IT Access Network for Rural & Underserved Populations and is a founding steering committee member for the Montana HIT Taskforce. Rogers is actively involved in several efforts to define and develop the national’s Health IT workforce. He is also working with Hewlett Packard Company and Crossflo Systems to develop a Health Information Exchange Pilot Project in Montana. He is a member of Maternal Life International’s Board of Directors.
Rogers also is active in his community, is a youth soccer coach and an outdoor enthusiast. He has three children.
President and Medical Director -- Maternal Life International
Dr. Mulcaire-Jones is a native of and attended high school in East Helena, Montana, where he was a member of the varsity football team, American Legion baseball team and a volunteer for Big Brothers and Sisters. He worked summers at the ASARCO Smelter as a yard and zinc furnace laborer.
He attended Carroll College, Helena, Montana, on an Elsie Corrette Memorial Scholarship, majoring in premed biology. After three years of college, he entered the University of Washington Medical School, graduating with an MD degree in 1981. While attending the university, he was a volunteer at Seattle’s Catholic Worker Kitchen, a downtown Seattle Free Clinic.
His medical internship and residency was at Deaconess Hospital, Spokane; a Family Practice Residency at the University of Minnesota; a surgery internship at St. Peter’s Hospital, Helena; and an obstetric fellowship at Sacred Heart and Deaconess hospitals, Spokane. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Family Practice.
Mulcaire-Jones began his family medical practice in 1984 in Long Beach and Anaheim, California with the Mission Doctors Association, transferring to Cameroon, West Africa later that year. He returned to America in 1987 and continued his practice in the Seattle area before moving to Butte, Montana, in 1992. He is active in the medical and civic community of Butte, having served on the board of the YMCA, as co-chair of the St. James Hospital Ethics Committee, and as co-coordinator for the Butte-Silver Bow Suicide Prevention Task Force
In 1997, he formed what eventually became Maternal Life International, a nonprofit organization providing training and resource support for AIDS prevention and care, and maternal health services to developing countries, mainly in Africa. Dr. Jones is an
acknowledged expert and has spoken at numerous national conferences on these issues, including a US-sponsored United Nations panel on the causes of maternal mortality; the Authentic Women’s Health Care Conference at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and the United States National Aids Conference.
Dr. Jones was awarded the Charles Borromeo Humanitarian Award from his Alma Mater in 2001, the highest award Carroll College bestows.
While living in Butte, Dr. Mulcaire-Jones has been a little league baseball coach and a youth soccer league coach. George and his wife, Mary, have six children.
Dr. Robert F Scanlon Jr.
Director of Maternal Health Services and Board Member
Maternal Life International
Dr. Robert Scanlon Jr. is a native of Huntington, New York, where he presently is in private practice at the North Shore Medical Group, attending physician at Huntington Hospital. He is a Clinical Instructor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City, and Director of Maternal Health Services and Board Member of Maternal Life International, Butte, Montana.
Dr. Scanlon earned a BS in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University in 1978, an MBA from Duke University in 1981 and an MD from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University. His post-graduate studies include a Family Medicine Rotating Internship and an Obstetrics/Gynecology Specialty residency, both at the University Hospital, Stony Brook, New York. He is board certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, with the most recent recertification in 2006.
Dr. Scanlon’s international work includes fistula surgical repair at the Baptist Medical Center in Ghana and emergency obstetrical care instruction and training in Nigeria with a Maternal Life International team of specialists.
He coaches basketball, baseball and softball in his spare time. He and his wife, Cathleen, live in Huntington, New York with their three children; Robert, Timmy and Elizabeth.
Raymond F. (Ray) Rogers
CEO National Center for Health Care Informatics
Raymond F. (Ray) Rogers is the Chief Executive Officer for the National Center for Health Care Informatics (NCHCI) in Butte, Montana, and a faculty member at Montana Tech of the University of Montana. Rogers has more than 20 years experience in higher education, administration, management, fundraising, marketing, and business development. He holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering and a MS in Technical Communications.
In 2001, he led the effort on behalf of the Montana University System to create the nation’s first undergraduate degree in Health Care Informatics. He now serves as CEO of the NCHCI, a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the management of health care data, information and knowledge. Through the NCHCI, he has built awareness and encouraged the board adoption of electronic health records, personal health records, and health information exchange. He was instrumental in developing a $250,000 multi-way, interactive, Internet II communication laboratory operated by the NCHCI.
Rogers is leading a number of significant educational, business development, and research and development efforts through the NCHCI. He is the national co-chair of the educational committee for the Healthcare IT Access Network for Rural & Underserved Populations and is a founding steering committee member for the Montana HIT Taskforce. Rogers is actively involved in several efforts to define and develop the national’s Health IT workforce. He is also working with Hewlett Packard Company and Crossflo Systems to develop a Health Information Exchange Pilot Project in Montana. He is a member of Maternal Life International’s Board of Directors.
Rogers also is active in his community, is a youth soccer coach and an outdoor enthusiast. He has three children.
Press Release - AFMED
BUTTE MEDICAL TEAM TO ADVANCE AFRICAN FAMILY HEALTH CARE IN NIGERIA
Butte, MT – Two Butte organizations, Maternal Life International (MLI) and the National Center for Health Care Informatics (NCHCI) at Montana Tech, have joined to advance family medicine in Nigeria, promoting safe births and combating malaria, tuberculosis, and mother-to-child transmission of AIDS. Nigeria with 135 million people has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world, as well as increasing levels of infectious diseases.
Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones, Butte physician and MLI’s medical director, and Ray Rogers, NCHCI’s chief executive, leave Sunday, February 24, for two weeks of specialty medical training and information technology evaluation and development. They will be joined by Dr. Robert Scanlon of Huntington, New York, an obstetrician and gynecologist, who heads MLI’s New York affiliate, Aiding Infants and Mothers (AIM) that funds women and infant health care in Nigeria.
“Since 2003, we’ve taught essential safe-birthing techniques to more than 800 Nigerian health care workers,” Dr. Mulcaire-Jones said. “This latest phase, known as The African Family Medicine Education and Development Initiative, or AFMED, will focus on specialty medical training for smaller groups of family physicians, which is necessary to sustain improvements in community care.”
This year’s program will take place at Our Lady of the Apostles Hospital (OLA) in Jos, Nigeria. It will be augmented by additional course work through interactive web-based distance learning and other technological information tools to be developed by the NCHCI.
“This model combines the best in health care training with the best in technology,” Rogers said. “We will identify the appropriate technology solutions for OLA in order to deliver distance learning among locations in the US and Nigeria.”
NCHCI will assist the hospital in building a computer laboratory and will train OLA staff on the use of video conferencing equipment. “We want to begin the process whereby our technology at the NCHCI can leverage the video conferencing capabilities in Nigeria to link multiple locations simultaneously. Then medical experts in the US not only can instruct Nigerian family doctors where they work in rural Africa but also offer them a way to implement medical solutions and applicable technologies in a timely manner.”
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 542,000 women die from pregnancy related complications each year, with 99 percent of those deaths occurring in the developing world. Dr. Scanlon said this shows life-saving interactions that have been available in the developed world for nearly 100 years fail to take hold in many places in the developing world.
“Our approach to this breakdown is two-fold,” Dr. Scanlon said. “AIM will pay for the health care of some 500 women and their children at OLA from pregnancy through six months post-birth. The AFMED model will give family docs additional specialty medical training to increase their abilities. The care the women receive for their pregnancy and births, including the treatment of opportunistic infectious diseases, will be affordable, fair, competent and consistent. This should help us to better understand and resolve some of the technology transfer questions regarding safe-births.”
AFMED is being sponsored by the Nigerian Catholic Council of Bishops that operates some 320 health facilities and delivers approximately 40 percent of the health care in the country.
For those wanting more information or to see the progress of the Butte team in Nigeria, visit the team blog -- http://healthcareinnigeria.blogspot.com/
Maternal Life International is a Butte-based nonprofit dedicated to providing safe, practical, life-affirming, and innovative programs in AIDS prevention and care and in maternal health services. The National Center for Health Care Informatics at Montana Tech is a Montana non-profit corporation whose mission is to improve the management of data, information, and knowledge throughout healthcare.
Butte, MT – Two Butte organizations, Maternal Life International (MLI) and the National Center for Health Care Informatics (NCHCI) at Montana Tech, have joined to advance family medicine in Nigeria, promoting safe births and combating malaria, tuberculosis, and mother-to-child transmission of AIDS. Nigeria with 135 million people has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world, as well as increasing levels of infectious diseases.
Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones, Butte physician and MLI’s medical director, and Ray Rogers, NCHCI’s chief executive, leave Sunday, February 24, for two weeks of specialty medical training and information technology evaluation and development. They will be joined by Dr. Robert Scanlon of Huntington, New York, an obstetrician and gynecologist, who heads MLI’s New York affiliate, Aiding Infants and Mothers (AIM) that funds women and infant health care in Nigeria.
“Since 2003, we’ve taught essential safe-birthing techniques to more than 800 Nigerian health care workers,” Dr. Mulcaire-Jones said. “This latest phase, known as The African Family Medicine Education and Development Initiative, or AFMED, will focus on specialty medical training for smaller groups of family physicians, which is necessary to sustain improvements in community care.”
This year’s program will take place at Our Lady of the Apostles Hospital (OLA) in Jos, Nigeria. It will be augmented by additional course work through interactive web-based distance learning and other technological information tools to be developed by the NCHCI.
“This model combines the best in health care training with the best in technology,” Rogers said. “We will identify the appropriate technology solutions for OLA in order to deliver distance learning among locations in the US and Nigeria.”
NCHCI will assist the hospital in building a computer laboratory and will train OLA staff on the use of video conferencing equipment. “We want to begin the process whereby our technology at the NCHCI can leverage the video conferencing capabilities in Nigeria to link multiple locations simultaneously. Then medical experts in the US not only can instruct Nigerian family doctors where they work in rural Africa but also offer them a way to implement medical solutions and applicable technologies in a timely manner.”
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 542,000 women die from pregnancy related complications each year, with 99 percent of those deaths occurring in the developing world. Dr. Scanlon said this shows life-saving interactions that have been available in the developed world for nearly 100 years fail to take hold in many places in the developing world.
“Our approach to this breakdown is two-fold,” Dr. Scanlon said. “AIM will pay for the health care of some 500 women and their children at OLA from pregnancy through six months post-birth. The AFMED model will give family docs additional specialty medical training to increase their abilities. The care the women receive for their pregnancy and births, including the treatment of opportunistic infectious diseases, will be affordable, fair, competent and consistent. This should help us to better understand and resolve some of the technology transfer questions regarding safe-births.”
AFMED is being sponsored by the Nigerian Catholic Council of Bishops that operates some 320 health facilities and delivers approximately 40 percent of the health care in the country.
For those wanting more information or to see the progress of the Butte team in Nigeria, visit the team blog -- http://healthcareinnigeria.blogspot.com/
Maternal Life International is a Butte-based nonprofit dedicated to providing safe, practical, life-affirming, and innovative programs in AIDS prevention and care and in maternal health services. The National Center for Health Care Informatics at Montana Tech is a Montana non-profit corporation whose mission is to improve the management of data, information, and knowledge throughout healthcare.
Monday, February 18, 2008
What is AFMED?
The African Family Medicine Education and Development Initiative (AFMED) is a program to improve healthcare in rural and underserved areas of Sub-Saharan Africa by improving the quality and availability of African-based family medicine training. Through improved training and mentoring, family physicians can take a leading role in health care delivery in Africa. In this context, family medicine is uniquely positioned to provide, (1) Primary care and preventive services, (2) Curative inpatient and outpatient care, and, where necessary, (3) Surgical and advanced obstetrical care.
AFMED builds upon the fundamentals of family medicine, which emphasize evidence-based practice, cultural sensitivity, community outreach and care of the whole person. From this foundation, AMFED seeks to address the challenges of providing high-quality, on-site, post-graduate family medicine education in Africa through a collaborative effort emphasizing modern learning and communication technologies, pilot community hospital training, and sustainable partnerships between US- and Africa-based institutions and organizations.
As proposed, AFMED consists of three integrated phases to be implemented over three years, each building on the other and each strategically placed to insure program sustainability.
Phase 1.
A. Identification, review and adaptation of existing international family medicine training curricula now in existence to the health care needs and conditions in Africa.
B. Development of an Africa-specific model family medicine residency training curriculum integrated with a learning resource center in North Central Nigeria.
C. Development of an educational e-mail list serve and Web-site emphasizing maternal health, obstetrical care, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTC).
D. Design, production, and distribution of Web-based learning tools specific for family medicine training in Africa.
E. Design, production, and distribution of CD/DVD-based learning tools, herein after refered to as multimedia tools, specific for family medicine training in Africa.
F. Network development between existing family medicine organizations and institutions in the United States with those in Africa.
G. Collaboration and network development with WONCA (World Organization of Family Doctors).
H. Dissemination and adaptation of existing family medicine journal and print materials.
Phase 2.
A. Design of a pilot family medicine curriculum delivered through state-of-the-art distance learning technologies.
B. Develop feasibility study and operational plan for faculty development and exchange between African- and US-based residency programs.
C. Development of AFMED Program Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Certification, and Accreditation.
Phase 3.
A. Plan for the dissemination of AFMED curriculum and technology to 10 additional English-speaking, Sub-Saharian African countries in need of upscaling post-graduate family medicine training.
B. Conduct an AFMED International Summit engaging key government and faith-based health care leaders to integrate family medicine specialty training into national health care development strategies.
AFMED builds upon the fundamentals of family medicine, which emphasize evidence-based practice, cultural sensitivity, community outreach and care of the whole person. From this foundation, AMFED seeks to address the challenges of providing high-quality, on-site, post-graduate family medicine education in Africa through a collaborative effort emphasizing modern learning and communication technologies, pilot community hospital training, and sustainable partnerships between US- and Africa-based institutions and organizations.
As proposed, AFMED consists of three integrated phases to be implemented over three years, each building on the other and each strategically placed to insure program sustainability.
Phase 1.
A. Identification, review and adaptation of existing international family medicine training curricula now in existence to the health care needs and conditions in Africa.
B. Development of an Africa-specific model family medicine residency training curriculum integrated with a learning resource center in North Central Nigeria.
C. Development of an educational e-mail list serve and Web-site emphasizing maternal health, obstetrical care, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTC).
D. Design, production, and distribution of Web-based learning tools specific for family medicine training in Africa.
E. Design, production, and distribution of CD/DVD-based learning tools, herein after refered to as multimedia tools, specific for family medicine training in Africa.
F. Network development between existing family medicine organizations and institutions in the United States with those in Africa.
G. Collaboration and network development with WONCA (World Organization of Family Doctors).
H. Dissemination and adaptation of existing family medicine journal and print materials.
Phase 2.
A. Design of a pilot family medicine curriculum delivered through state-of-the-art distance learning technologies.
B. Develop feasibility study and operational plan for faculty development and exchange between African- and US-based residency programs.
C. Development of AFMED Program Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Certification, and Accreditation.
Phase 3.
A. Plan for the dissemination of AFMED curriculum and technology to 10 additional English-speaking, Sub-Saharian African countries in need of upscaling post-graduate family medicine training.
B. Conduct an AFMED International Summit engaging key government and faith-based health care leaders to integrate family medicine specialty training into national health care development strategies.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Map of Nigeria
Here is a map of Nigeria. We will be flying into the Capital city of Abuja and driving to Jos.
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