IATP News

For a small NGO in the breakaway region of Transdnistria in Moldova, access to free ICT  training and internet is not a resource taken for granted. Without the skills NGO members acquired at the Tiraspol IATP Center – the only place to get free training and internet in the region – the NGO Reproductive Health Center would probably not have had the opportunity to win a grant from UNICEF.  But that’s exactly what happened on September 2, 2009.

This Moldovan NGO specializes in offering family planning services to its community members and in raising awareness about maternal and child health care. Earlier this year, employees of the NGO came to IATP to study computer and internet basics. They wanted ICT skills to search for grants on the internet and apply for them online. They finished their training, applied their new skills, and in September, they received the good news from UNICEF.

“The skills we received at the IATP center, as well as the opportunity to work on the internet free of charge, are invaluable to our organization. It is particularly important in our fundraising efforts and establishing contact with international organizations. We also use the internet to communicate and cooperate with other NGOs that work in the same sphere as us,” remarked NGO Director Irina Goreacikovskaia.

Physicians Report More Time for Patients with Digitized System

Maral Annaorazova is one of only four primary doctors at the Tuberculosis (TB) Prevention Center in Balkanabat, Turkmenistan. The demand on her time is great. The hospital regularly houses 90 in-patients (an average of 23 in her care) and doctors see an additional 60 patients (about 15 each) by appointment daily. In a modernized hospital, these conditions would be challenging but until last year, Annaorazova still worked in a medical facility where all the paperwork was completed by hand. Thanks to USAID-donated computers and IATP training last winter, a year later her workload has become more manageable and she is more satisfied with the patient care she now has the time to deliver.

Last September, the TB center in Balkanabat was the recipient of two computers from the USAID-funded Project Hope. Last winter, Annaorazova along with eight of her colleagues from the TB Center attended IATP training and studied the full range of equipment and software used in a modern hospital. Less than a year after Annaorazova and her colleagues completed IATP training, the Center now works with electronic patient registration templates, a digital patient database, electronic archives, and electronically composed documents and reports.

Annaorazova explains that before the digitization of the hospital’s routine paperwork and procedures, it was not uncommon for her to spend half of her day seeing appointments and filling out medical charts by hand. She reports that the paperwork alone consumed 10-15 percent of her day. “I could have used the precious time I spent filling reports out by hand, to see my patients and attend to their needs,” reports the doctor.

Thanks to an updated system, one of the health care administrators, Amanbagt Rahymova, has cut her workload by 80 percent. One of the two computers went to Rahymova’s office as she is primarily responsible for maintaining all hospital records, for maintaining the patient database, and for filing routine reports to central authorities. She was one of the IATP graduates of the computer basics and MS Office applications training. What used to take Rahymova an hour to do by hand, she reports, now takes her only ten minutes by computer. “Using MS Word and Excel has made my work so much more efficient. Now I have more time to fulfill other duties,” she reports.

Part of this saved time she spends assisting Pediatrician Annaorazova. Annaorazova notes that Rahymova assists her in her own paperwork which gives the physician almost twice as much time to spend caring for patients. “If I spent 25 minutes with a patient before, now I have more than 50 minutes to spend with them. For this, I am so grateful.”

But Annaorazova is the only doctor Rahymova has time to assist. The workloads of the three other physicians remain heavy. Rahymova suggests there is much more to be done and notes that once the facility can acquire more computers, at least one for each doctor, the impact will be four times as great for the hospital and its patients.

Rahymova goes on to envision computers at all eight of their village branches in the Balkan region with staff working themselves with a digitized system after being trained in ICT skills. Head of the TB hospital Kurban Tachliev says “IT training has had such a great impact on the hospital’s day-to-day functioning as well as our staff’s performance….I am waiting for the day we can equip our branches in the villages with computers and provide the doctors there with IT training. We would then be able to network our facilities and communicate so much more easily when exchanging information and reports.”

Over 40 medical professionals in Turkmenistan have participated in IATP training over the last year mastering computer basics and MS Office applications. Countrywide, 1,000 people in Turkmenistan have participated in over 3,300 IATP training courses since last September.

Medical Professionals in Turkmenistan Use Computer Skills to Manage New Healthcare Information System

After completing computer training at their respective local IATP centers, medical professionals from Turkmenistan’s Sanitation Epidemiological Offices (SEO) are benefiting from a new health information system.

The International Public Health Organization and the Turkmenistan Ministry of Health installed the new disease prevention information system at SEO regional offices. To use this tool, however, SEO employees needed computer skills. Twenty-two medical professionals thus developed skills in basic computer use, internet navigation, word processing, database management, and spreadsheet generation at IATP centers in Mary, Balkanabat, Dashoguz, and Turkmenabat.

Epidemiologist Nurbibi Rejepova from Dashoguz remarked, “I always need to gather information from my colleagues and share statistics and reports on epidemiology. It is routine work but had been taking up more of my work time. Now, I realize that information technologies are indispensable tools that facilitate my information management activities. I can dedicate more time to helping the public instead of documentation.”

From February 2008 to March 2009, IATP equipped more than 70 of Turkmenistan’s medical professionals with computer skills through its regional centers.

Tajikistan Physicians Create Local- Language Online Wiki Resource

Three medical professionals from Garm Central Hospital created a wiki site for their students in the Tajik language (Бемории_Саратони) with skills they acquired through IATP training. Recruited by IATP staff members’ presentation on ICT for medical practitioners conducted at Garm’s Central Hospital in February 2009, a group of physicians began their coursework in computer and internet skills in March. They continued their professional development with advanced training in Web 2.0 technologies in April.

Surgeon and Rasht District Medical College lecturer Dehoti Zoirov commented that although “we can find sufficient printed materials and abundant online resources on medicine in Russian…most Tajik students face a language barrier in understanding these resources.” Zoirov added that his students lack the ICT skills to use online resources. These two challenges led Zoirov and his colleagues to translate teaching materials from Russian into Tajik and publish them on a wiki page.

With this resource in place, physician Sobirjon Mirzoev is now able to encourage his “students to use ICT regularly and contribute to development of wiki pages in Tajik.” From January to March 2009, citizens in Tajikistan that utilize IATP resources created ten wiki sites in their national language.

Azerbaijan Healthcare Practitioners Improve Efficiency with New IT Skills

Azerbaijan Healthcare Practitioners Improve Efficiency with New IT Skills Medical professionals from the Imishli’s Central Hospital, Children’s Clinic, and Central Clinic are now working more efficiently thanks to the skills they gained through IATP training during the spring of 2009.

After IATP Center Administrator Abulfat Zeynalli delivered an outreach and recruitment presentation on ICT for medical practitioners, ten physicians from local healthcare institutions signed up for IATP skills courses. They completed computer basics and office applications training at the Imishli IATP Center in February and March. As part of their coursework, these professionals learned how to work with files and folders, track patient information, and use word processing software.

Hospital staff are using their new skills daily. Imishli’s health administrators and physicians are using computers to document patient conditions, produce health certificates, and generate various registration forms. Imlishi Regional Central Hospital Registration Department employee Arzu Salmanova commented, “Now I can say that I do my job faster than before. People don’t need to wait long for registration and this makes me happy.”

Ukrainian NGO Employs SMS Technology in Battle Against HIV/AIDS

A March 2009 pilot project spearheaded by IATP and the NGO Doroga Zhyttya (Road of Life) in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine is helping 20 patients better adhere to their tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS treatment regimens. This progress not only serves the health of the individuals involved, but also contributes to broader public health.

Doroga Zhyttya, part of the USAID-partnered All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (network.org.ua), encourages and empowers patients to stick to their treatment schedules. Many of their clients are involved with drugs or the criminal justice system, populations especially susceptible to poor adherence. The Ukrainian government provides treatment free of charge, but medicine, whatever its cost, cannot be effective if it is taken improperly or insufficiently. In response to this problem, Doroga Zhyttya applied a mobile technology-based community outreach tool developed in Africa and brought to Eurasia by IATP. With IATP support, members of the NGO created a project plan to send SMS messages to the mobile phones of a 20 client test group. To implement this operation, the NGO needed only a laptop, a cell phone and FrontlineSMS – free software available to community-focused development NGOs. Now clients receive coded messages three times each day, anonymously reminding them to take their scheduled dosage.

In May, the NGO plans to expand their SMS outreach to 200 clients. In anticipation of this advance, Doroga Zhyttya is developing a grant proposal with IATP to take over full implementation and broaden the project’s scope.

IATP is currently assisting two other NGOs from Dnipropetrovsk implement SMS projects. One is creating an anonymous 24-hour HIV/AIDS question-and-answer service. The second is developing informational SMS-listserv for an informal homeowner’s association. Through these projects, IATP empowers civil society actors to use advanced, inexpensive, and practical technology in meeting their goals.

IATP Training Helps Local NGO Win Grant Award

In March 2009, Moldovan NGO Biaz Gul (White Rose) won a second project grant with assistance from IATP. The NGO advocates for the rights and social reintegration of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The $3,000 grant was provided by the Soros Foundation. These funds will go towards consultations and social support services for HIV/AIDS patients in southern Moldova. In 2008, Comrat IATP staff taught Biaz Gul representatives to use computers and the internet in seeking grant opportunities. That December, the group received $1,000 from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) for a project improving the quality of life for children living in HIV/AIDS-affected families.

Biaz Gul President Alexander Zavrichko told IATP that, "as our association at present is in search of an office, the IATP center remains for us our only opportunity to work on computers and access the internet free of charge. Thanks to IATP, we have achieved serious successes, such as enhancing our knowledge, gaining new contacts, and winning two grants for our project."

Since opening in 2008, the USAID-funded IATP center in Comrat has reached hundreds of this region’s underserved citizens. IATP’s assistance to individuals is multiplied when it helps organizations such as Biaz Gul improve their potential and communities.

Tajikistan Hospital Benefits from Using ICT in Daily Tasks

Nine medical personnel of the Central Hospital in Garm, Tajikistan, (CHG) reported a host of improvements in professionalism and efficiency in their work, their hospital, and the medical college where they pass along their skills. They attributed these enhancements to ICT skills training they completed at the Garm IATP center in March 2009.

The doctors were recruited by IATP Garm Administrator Ravshan Sirojev. On February 17, Sirojev conducted the IATP outreach presentation on ICT for medical personnel at CHG, showing its doctors the many ways they could benefit from ICT training.

Doctor of Family Medicine Mirzoev Sobirjon found that ICT improved his productivity. He found it “amazing that through the internet we can find modern medical treatment recommendations for various diseases.” “Until now,” he continued, “I submitted my reports to Dushanbe by post or though my friends, but now I can send them through e-mail.”

CHG Surgeon Zoirov Dehoti also teaches anatomy at the local Medical College, an endeavor complicated by his and his students’ previous lack of access to current information on medical topics. ICT training helped Dehoti access new resource tools. He noted “through the internet I found www.anatomy.tj and www.e-anatomy.ru – sites that contain important information for students. My colleagues and I decided to translate some materials to our national language, develop some modules and brochures, and provide them for our students.”

Ophthalmologist Nosirov Fayzali used the internet to find “a laser microscope used for eye examinations. We plan to order such equipment from Moscow. Just a few years ago, finding such a device would require traveling abroad and spending much time physically looking for it.” Thanks to IATP training, CHG’s medical staff is using ICT skills to improve their hospital, make their work more efficient, and acquire better equipment for patient care.

IATP User Promotes Awareness of Genetically Modified Organisms

Active IATP user, lecturer, and rights activist Maksim Shirnin hosted an international online forum on the ecological and health risks of genetically modified organisms (GMO) at the IATP center in Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

Thirteen participants from Ukraine, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Poland, and Russia discussed the controversial topic on February 11.  During the online discussion, Shirnin shared his knowledge of European and American research, explained the difference between genetic engineering and genetic selection, and gave examples of genetically engineered food. He also discussed the potential environmental effects of GMO and the potential risks of GMO to humans. 

Along with other Ukrainian scientists and doctors, Shirnin has been raising awarness about GMO since 1998.  Shirnin commented, “Our rights in consuming GMO are not protected as there is little or no labeling on the products…it is crucial to inform the general public on these issues, especially through online chats and forums.”

 All of the forum participants agreed that the topic was important and that they would share the valuable information they gained with their peers.  The participants also agreed to continue online discussions on the same or related topics in the future.

Doctors Find ICT a Valuable Tool in Fight against Tuberculosis

Doctors of the Tuberculosis (TB) Prevention Center in Balkanabat, Turkmenistan, are using ICT skills they acquired during IATP training to increase the efficiency of their work and devote more attention to patient care.

In November 2008, the IATP center in Balkanabat partnered with the USAID-funded Project HOPE to organize the training series for doctors at the TB Prevention Center.  The Center recently received computers and other office equipment through USAID funding and requested ICT training for its staff.  Throughout November and December, a group of eight doctors and health care administrators learned to use the full range of equipment and software used in a modern hospital and practiced using the internet.  After the trainees completed the training course, they began using their newly acquired skills to modernize and improve the Center’s patient care services, and digitizing routine paperwork and procedures.  Now the Center is working faster and more professionally, with electronic patient registration templates, a digital patient database, electronic archives, and electronically-composed documents and reports for submission to central authorities.

In February, the group will continue learning to use the internet to communicate with colleagues in other cities, research TB treatment options, and learn about interventions initiated by Project HOPE in other countries.  Lead Center Physician Kurban Tashliyev explained how IATP provided a more practical ICT training option for his staff by saving his employees money and time.  “With the new computers, I thought that our staff should go to paid computer courses to gain ICT knowledge, but IATP trained us free of charge, providing essential and intensive computer courses in a short time.  I found out that the IATP center is the only place in Balkanabat where people can receive knowledge and use resources free of charge, which is very important.  Programs like IATP are making a big social impact on our society.”  Last year, IATP centers across Turkmenistan trained over 50 health care providers.