E-drug: WHO and training (cont)
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In addition to what WHO provides in texts and resource materials they have
also made available a marvellous WHO Medicines Bookshelf on CD-ROM. The
version 3 is very user friendly, is free and is an excellent resource for
teachers, libraries and individuals interested in essential medicines. The
course I teach here at Boston University is based entirely on these
materials. The Department of reproductive Health and research have also
produced a WHO reproductive Health Library on a CD-ROM.
Another contribution WHO makes to training is the participation of senior
staff members in training courses such as the Drug Policy issues course I
run, the frequent Promoting rational Drug Use courses, the
Pharmaco-economic courses, the Hospital drug and therapeutic
committee courses etc etc. Not only do the staff members participate
actively, they produce excellent power point presentations which they
make available and often WHO provides scholarships for nationals from
all sorts of backgrounds to attend these courses. I have posted many
of these materials on a web site that I maintain
at http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/richardl/
A further WHO resource that is sometimes neglected are the very useful
materials produced by the regional offices. The recent publication on
Procurement methods from WPRO or The Patient in Focus A strategy for
pharmaceutical sector reform in Newly Independent States EUR/ICP/QCPH
06 22 02 WHO/DAP/98.8 from WHO/EURO are very useful resources. Many
of these publications are published in multiple languages. Also
please do not forget the Essential Drugs Monitor which contains
articles that can serve as chapters of textbooks. It is free, widely
distributed and right up to date.
One other benefit of using WHO materials is that they do not charge for
copyright clearance. Here in the US we often pay $2-3 per article per copy
for materials that we want to copy for students.
If George Kipumba wants WHO to produce textbooks, they have. The yellow
bible Managing Drug Supply was jointly produced by WHO and Management
Sciences for Health. Many thousands of copies have been distributed. If
George does not have a copy of this standard text or the WHO Medicines
bookshelf CD-ROM I suggest he ask for them and he will be amazed at
how many resources are being produced and provided.
My son is studying engineering and I can tell you that there is no global
organization that provides so many useful resources. I think that we are
very lucky in having WHO providing so many training resources. I just
wonder why more people do not use them.
Richard Laing
Associate Professor
Department of International Health
Tel 617 414-1444
Fax 617 638-4476
Boston University School of Public Health Web
http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/richardl/
715 Albany St Boston MA 02118-2526
richardl@bu.edu <mailto:richardl@bu.edu>
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