The I-TECH HIV/AIDS Clinical Seminar Series is a bi-monthly distance learning series aimed at health care workers treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Caribbean and India. HIV/AIDS experts present on a variety of advanced care, comprehensive management, and treatment topics via live sessions across several countries around the globe. These 60 minute sessions use a case based format during the live session and have a listserv that allows participants to engage in follow-up communication across sites after each session. Archived sessions are available for downloading from this website. Sessions are conducted in English.

Goals

• Strengthen HIV care delivered by health care workers in resource-limited settings.
• Establish an international network of HIV/AIDS clinicians and health care workers who can work together through case discussions and lectures to address challenging issues.
• Promote collaboration and mutual understanding among a diverse network of clinicians.
• Deliver up-to-date and evidence-based information on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and managment.

Objectives of the Clinical Seminar Series

• Increase knowledge and skills of health care workers related to care, treatment, diagnosis, and comprehensive management of HIV/AIDS patients in resource-limited settings.
• Increase collaboration and communication across the I-TECH global team of clinicians with an emphasis on sharing of best practices and lessons learned from HIV/AIDS-related clinical issues.
• Rapidly disseminate cutting edge HIV/AIDS research and evidence-based case management approaches.
• Gain proficiency in use of the “interactive webcasting” distance learning technology in order to broad its application for new audiences and purposes.

Target Audience

Clinicians (doctors, clinical officers, advanced nurses) treating HIV/AIDS in resource-limited countries served by I-TECH and University of Washington-affiliated programs.

Session Length

60 minutes

Session format

Live (synchronous) component: Each of the live (synchronous) sessions is presented via the Adobe Connect software using a case based format. The presenter presents a clinical case using power point slides that will guide a lecture and discussion of the topic. Following the lecture presentation, the presenter will take questions from participants via the chat function of Adobe Connect. An on-site facilitator will type in participant’s questions.

Follow-up post session (asynchronous component): This website provides the course schedule, additional resource materials for each session, an archive of each session (streaming link) after it is presented, and a listserv where participants may post additional questions or engage in additional asynchronous text discussion with the presenter after each session.

Session Day & Time

Second and last Thursday of the month. Series runs from April 2008- April 2009. Series is held at 7:00AM Pacific Standard Time (PST) April-November and 6:00AM PST November - March (due to daylight savings time in the U.S.). Note that this time change does not affect the local time in most countries (unless your country also has a time change due to day light savings), thus it is at the same time all year round for most remote sites.

Session Evaluation

It is important to us that we collect feedback on the sessions in order to improve this series. At the end of the series participants and site coordinators receive evaluation forms. These forms are also available for download in the Resources section of this website.

Project Leadership

This is an I-TECH (International Training & Education Center on HIV) project under I-TECH's Distance Learning Initiative. Course Directors:

• Chris Behrens, MD: I-TECH Medical Director, Seattle
• Stacey Lissit, MS: I-TECH Director of Training, Seattle

The planning committee consists of Chris Behrens, Stacey Lissit, Anya Nartker, Maureen Sarewitz, Vickery McCall Prongay and David Hughes. This committee will guide the development, coordination and evaluation of the curriculum and series, and disseminate findings from the evaluations with the aim of creating an effective method for continued clinical distance learning for I-TECH and UW-affiliated sites worldwide.

Supported by

This project is supported through PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It is produced by International Training & Education Center on HIV (I-TECH) with funding from Cooperative Agreement U91HA06801 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), in collaboration with CDC.

If you are interested in attending any of these sessions or finding out more about this pilot series, please contact DLinfo@u.washington.edu.