Merck kicks off its second year fight against diabetes in africa through e–learning solutions

 

Merck has started its second year of its five year project to provide European Accredited Clinical Diabetes Management course for medical and pharmacy students in African Universities by introducing E-Learning.

At the beginning of September 2014 – Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) will kick off its second year of the Clinical Diabetes Management Program to medical and pharmacy students in University of Nairobi.  Merck will provide the same course to medical students of Makerere University, Uganda and University of Namibia.

• At the end of September 2014  – it will provide the same course addressing chronic diseases management focusing on Diabetes and hypertension. The course will be offered in Portuguese by International and local professors to medical students at University Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique and Katyavala Bwila University, Angola.
• In November 2014 – Merck will head to Tanzania where they will provide the clinical diabetes management course to medical students of Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science before extending the same to University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.
• Every healthcare provider in those countries and the rest of Africa will have free access to all the lectures on a dedicated website www.managediabetesonline.org  and will be able to undergo an assessment to obtain CME hours on line.

Dr Stefan Oschmann, Merck Pharma CEO said:  “ Merck is supporting E- Health which can definitely contribute to bringing healthcare to unserved or underserved populations; increasing the effectiveness and reducing the costs of healthcare delivery; improving the effectiveness of public health programmes and research; preventing illness and managing and treating chronic diseases.”

Rasha Kelej, the head of Global Market Development and Business Responsibility of Merck Serono said: “Using the power of mobile and internet technologies to share information via SMS or dedicated website to healthcare providers and the general public across Africa especially in rural areas,  will help to increase access to training, education and raise awareness on the issues of diabetes so that they learn to better prevent, diagnose and manage the disease, such as the websites for Africa Continues Medical Education ( CME) tour for physicians in rural areas- http://www.managediabetesonline.org “.

Merck Capacity Advancement Program – CAP aims to reach at least 9,000 students by 2018, with information on how to better diagnose, manage and prevent the deadly silent disease.

Diabetes is one of the rising killer diseases globally, claiming one life every eight seconds and a limb lost at every 30 seconds, according to reports from World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

• In March 2013 – Merck Germany announced the launch of its Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) in Namibia. This was after conducting a stakeholders committee with the Principals, deans and faculty members of African universities on board to discuss the learning gaps of medical students and healthcare professional in their countries with special focus on diabetes. Dr Stefan Oschmann, Merck Pharma CEO chaired this committee at Namibia University.
• In late November 2013, Merck announced the launch of the first year of a European accredited clinical diabetes management programme as a part of the Merck Capacity Advancement Program (CAP) at the University of Nairobi (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda) and the University of Namibia (Namibia). The program has reached more than 1000 students.

Highlighting Merck’s ongoing commitment to raise the awareness s of diabetes in The Sub- Saharan Africa, in December 2013, Merck launched their first Diabetes awareness Campaign in Uganda and Kenya. The campaign dubbed , “Get Active Get Informed Get Healthier” has reached around 3,000 community members with free screening and education about how to prevent and manage diabetes by eating healthy & balanced diet, exercising regularly and taking their prescribed medication.