RFI: Epidemiology Course on the Internet
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Dear Mrs./Ms./Mr.
I am pleased to express my deep interest in Epidemiology. I would
like to have a formal training in Epidemiology. I want to know if it
is possible to get that training through the Internet.
I am grateful in advance for your assistance.
Yours sincerely,
Dr S.L. Okonda
Histopathologist
Central Public Health Laboratory
P.O. Box 54
Manzini, Swaziland
Tel: +268-505-2126
Fax: +268-505-4697
mailto:okonda@iafrica.sz
[From the Moderator: Dear Dr. Okonda,
For a beginning you can try to have a look at the 'Supercourse':
"Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health" to be found at:
with further links to 'Supercourse at WHO' and 'Global Pathology Su-
percourse'.
Here is an overview of the 'Supercourse':
We are developing a global supercourse with 1203 faculty already in
101 countries. We currently have 78 lectures. Our program consists
of:
1. Information Sharing: A Global academic faculty is developing
and beginning to share their best, most passionate lectures in
the area of public health and the Internet. This benefits all.
The experienced faculty member can beef up their lectures that
are not cutting edge. New instructors reduce preparation time
and improve their lectures, as they can employ state of the art
lectures from others. Faculty in developing countries have ac-
cess to current scientific information which they would not
normally have. The concept is that of a library of lectures for
all to use is in many ways similar to that of "shareware" on
the computer.
2. Statistical Quality Assurance: We have an open suggestions sys-
tem on the lectures by the global faculty to strengthen the
quality of lectures. In addition, all students rate the lec-
tures, and we will track the ratings over time using systems
developed by Deming for Industry.
3. Teaching the Teachers: We provide high-level lectures to the
teachers of students in medical school, dental, etc. These are
passionate lectures by experts in the field, and the teacher
just "takes" them out like a library book to teach.
4. Hypertext Comic Book: The lectures are icon driven, and the
students can go deep for more information through hyperlinks.
5. Mirroring: We have set up about 25 mirrored server all over the
world.
6. Presentation Speed: We have developed approaches to speed ac-
cess.
7. Text books: The British Medical Association has put 2 current
text books on line.
8. Multilingual: For global use, this must be multilingual, the
first lecture is in 8 languages.
9. Voice-Sound Video: We are using state of the art Internet
voice-video systems to try this out.
We have published over 69 papers in leading medical journals includ-
ing the Lancet, British Medical Journal, Nature Medicine among oth-
ers. We put about 25 mirrored servers with the goal of having mir-
rored servers in every medical, veterinary and nursing school in the
next 3 years and in the curriculum of all schools. Initial pilot
studies reveal that 2500 individuals will see each lecture each year,
which is 50 times that of our classroom teaching. We have just beta
tested lectures in 2 centers in Japan and one in South Africa. ]
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