The I-TECH Global Health Clinical Seminar Series is a bi-monthly distance learning series aimed at health care workers working in resource-limited settings worldwide.  Expert clinicians present on a variety of care and treatment topics via live, interactive sessions broadcast over the internet free of charge to participating clinicians.  These 60 minute sessions typically 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. Most sessions are conducted in English.

Objectives of the Clinical Seminar Series

• Increase knowledge and skills of health care workers related to care, treatment, diagnosis, and comprehensive management of patients affected by AIDS, TB, malaria, hepatitis, and other medical conditions common in resource-limited settings;
• Increase collaboration and communication by clinicians working in resource-limited settings, with an emphasis on sharing of best practices and lessons learned;
• Rapidly disseminate relevant cutting-edge clinical research findings that could advance the quality of care delivered by clinicians in a wide variety of settings;
• Gain proficiency in use of the “interactive webcasting” distance learning technology in order to broaden its application for new audiences and purposes.

Target Audience

Clinicians (physicians, medical officers, clinical officers, nurses, medical students) who work in resource-limited settings worldwide.

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.

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

Generally the second and last Thursday of each month.  Sessions are 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 for Health) 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, and Vickery McCall Prongay. 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.