smart mentors project

March, 2016 SCORP Medsar Rwanda @hirwa94

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Auscultate the Country of Hills

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Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda

Smart mentors MEDSAR

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© Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda, All rights re-

served. The Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda wel-

comes requests for permission to reproduce or translate

its publications, in part or in full.

Proclaimer

The designations employed and the presentation of the

material in this publication do not imply the expression of

any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Medical Stu-

dents’ Association of Rwanda.

The mention of specific companies or of certain manufac-

turers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or

recommended by the Medical Students’ Association of

Rwanda in preference to others of a similar nature that are

not mentioned.

MEDSAR Medical Students’ Association

of Rwanda

MEDSAR

Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda (MEDSAR) is an independent,

non-governmental and non-political organization of medical students of

Rwanda. It was founded in 1997 and is running for and by medical stu-

dents on a non-for-profit basis. It is officially recognized by the University

of Rwanda as a non-governmental students’ organization (NGO). MED-

SAR is recognized by the School of Medicine and Pharmacy and is sup-

ported by dean’s office.

MEDSAR works under the umbrella of URSU (University of Rwanda Stu-

dents Union) which is a general association of students at the University

of Rwanda and is a member of the International Federation of Medical

Students Association (IFMSA). In order to achieve its objectives MEDSAR

has six Standing Committees through which all the activities are carried

out:

All Activities in MEDSAR are evaluated through the IFMSA Structure of

Standing Committees; Standing Committee on Public Health (SCOPH), on

Reproductive Health and AIDS (SCORA), on Human Rights and Peace

(SCORP), on Professional exchange (SCOPE), on Medical education

(SCOME), and on Research exchange (SCORE).

Find more on www.medsar.org.rw

MEDICAL STUDENTS’ASSOCIATION OF

RWANDA

STANDING COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS

AND PEACE

MUZUNGU HIRWA SYLVAIN (National

Officer on Human Rights and Peace)

Publisher

Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda,

University of Rwanda, Huye Campus

Contact us

[email protected] (NORP)

[email protected]

Notice

All reasonable precautions have been taken by

the Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda to

verify the information contained in this publica-

tion. However, the published material is being

distributed without warranty of any kind, either

express or implied. The responsibility for the in-

terpretation and use of the material lies with the

reader.

In no event shall the Medical Students’ Associa-

tion of Rwanda be liable for damages arising

from its use. The views expressed by authors,

editors, or expert groups do not necessarily rep-

resent the decisions or the stated policy of the

Medical Students’ Association of Rwanda.


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INTRODUCTION

Around the world, countless lives are lost due to

insufficient access to quality health information.

The availability of accurate, timely, and analyzed

data is directly relevant to the quality of an indi-

vidual’s health and the healthcare system in

general. Strengthening health systems is emerg-

ing as a cornerstone of global health policy. The

poor state of health systems in many parts of

the developing world is keeping individuals from

accessing essential Health care and slowing pro-

gress toward health-related UN Strategic Plan.

In past 22 years, Rwanda showed an increase in

building health sector. Enhancing health worker

capacity and levels of staffing, service delivery,

infrastructure, commodities (such as equipment

and medicines), logistics, progress-tracking, and

financing was rapidly improved. When applied

to health systems in all these areas, information

and communication technologies can transform

health systems globally or locally, improve quali-

ty of care, and save lives.

A SEA CHANGE IN COMMUNICATION AF-

TER 1994 IN RWANDA

Until recently, discussion about applying tech-

nology to health system in Rwanda revolved

around replacing paper based system with com-

puters with rapid 4G internet. Yet, in the past

decade a mobile communications revolution has

swept the small Great country and is beginning

to reshape how health information and services

are shared. An increasingly networked world

has changed the way businessman, government

and individual communicate.

Particularly in the developing world (where

Rwanda is classified), the rise of mobile commu-

nications holds tremendous potential to help

ease the flow of health information, whether

through simple voice calls, SMS messaging,

wireless data, or the burgeoning mobile inter-

net. The International Telecommunications Un-

ion (ITU) estimates

that2011openedwithover5.3billionmobile sub-

scriptions worldwide, ofwhichover3.5 Billion are

found in low and middle income countries.

From 20 past years, Medical Students As-

sociation of Rwanda used to teach local

community on health issues in traditional

ways ( Mouth to mouth or writing). Now

it’s time to think how to include ICT in

teaching our community.

Online Health Mentors manual


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ONLINE HEALTH INFORMATION

Online health information consumer profile

In the context of studies on health information seeking

online, ‘health consumers’ can be broadly defined as

patients, patients’ friends/relatives, and citizens in gen-

eral, and ‘health seekers’ have been defined as

‘internet users who search online for information on

health topics, whether they are acting as consumers,

caregivers or e-patients. Health consumers use the in-

formation they source online in different ways.

The WHO eHealth survey indicates that 29% had used

information from the internet to decide whether they

needed to see a doctor, and of those that did attend,

one in four used the internet in conjunction with the

doctor’s appointment.

In the latest Pew Internet Project survey, 59% of newly

diagnosed patients stated that the information they

had accessed prompted them to ask questions of the

doctor or seek a second opinion

Internet-based health information is accessed from a

variety of sources, including, websites run by organiza-

tions; homepages owned by individual doctors; online

support groups where people actively exchange health

information blogs authored by health advocates, care-

givers or those pursuing self-help

Statistics we have

One in three American adults have gone online to fig-

ure out a medical condition. Thirty-five percent of U.S.

adults say that at one time or another they have gone

online specifically to try to figure out what medical

condition they or someone else might have.

These findings come from a national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Throughout this report, we call those who searched for answers on the internet “online diagnosers.”

When asked if the information found online led them to think they needed the attention of a medical profes-sional, 46% of online diagnosers say that was the case. Thirty-eight percent of online diagnosers say it was something they could take care of at home and 11% say it was both or in-between. When we asked respond-ents about the accuracy of their initial diagnosis, they reported:

41% of online diagnosers say a medical professional confirmed their diagnosis. An additional 2% say a medi-cal professional partially confirmed it.

35% say they did not visit a clinician to get a profes-sional opinion.

18% say they consulted a medical professional and the clinician either did not agree or offered a different opinion about the condition.

1% say their conversation with a clinician was inconclusive.

Women are more likely than men to go online to figure out a possible diagnosis. Other groups that have a high likelihood of doing so include younger people, white adults, those who live in households earning $75,000 or more, and those with a college degree or advanced degrees.

It is important to note what these findings mean – and what they don’t mean. Historically, people have always tried to answer their health questions at home and made personal choices about whether and when to consult a clinician. Many have now added the internet to their personal health toolbox, helping themselves and their loved ones better understand what might be ailing them. This manual is not intended to tell you if internet is best choice for doing consultation. We all know that consultations must be done by registered health care providers. So the purpose of thus manual is to show how medical students can contribute in teach-ing health using internet.



www.medsar.org.rw

BACKGROUND

Africa accounts for about one tenth of the world's

population and 20 per cent of global births; yet, nearly

half of the mothers who die during pregnancy and

childbirth are from this region. The World Health Or-

ganization (WHO) estimates that poor reproductive

health accounts for up to 18 per cent of the global bur-

den of disease, and 32 per cent of the total burden of

disease for women of reproductive age. One of the

underlying causes of this situation is the lack of access

to key intervention for improving reproductive health,

such as family planning.

Since 1994, the country of thousand hills showed a tre-

mendous increase in the development and improving

living standards of Rwandans. Every year, statistics

from the World Bank and other economic regulators

report a promising increase of development. The de-

velopment leads to improved life standards of Rwan-

dans where more than 50% moved from poverty. Many

people are not afraid to call Rwanda an excellent coun-

try in Africa especially because it’s clean and its devel-

opment in ICT.

Current millions of Rwandans owns a cell phone and

many of them especially young people use internet.

Life expectancy of Rwandans moved from nowhere to

above 63 from 1994 to 2012. Health sector also showed

an incomparable improvement in 21 past years; num-

ber of doctors and other health workers was in-

creased, maternal and child mortality reduced consid-

erably. There are some diseases which became history

because of vaccination. The peaceful small country

was the one to introduce community based health in-

surance.

“We still have a long way to go, but Rwanda has been

able to come this far because we owned up” Said H.E.

Paul KAGAME, one of the greatest leader of this time.

Despite all the achievement in the health system, we

still have a long way to go. Youth of the country and

Young girls in general are still suffer from unwanted

pregnancy and lack of sexual education related prob-

lems that really can be prevented by education. We

have still increasing rate of malaria in the population

despite use of enormous effort in combatting the dis-

ease.

The recent statistics from MoH also report enormous

increase of malnourished people especially in young

children. Can we stand up and say that Rwandan popu-

lation are poor to be unable to feed their kids or they

don’t have protecting means against malaria? We

can’t. So why our young people are pregnant or suffer

from lack of sexual knowledge related problems?

The issue we can be sure is that Rwandan people’s

health knowledge is still critical. But we can ask our-

selves what to do because we already know that many

measures was taken to educate people about their

health but still there is no or little improvement espe-

cially on sexual and reproductive health. That’s why,

we, Medical students’ Association of Rwanda come

with an idea of using the ICT we have in increasing

health knowledge in the country of thousand hills.


Several young girls drop school every be-

cause of unwanted pregnancy. HIV trans-

mission increases every due to inadequate

reproductive health knowledge.


www.medsar.org.rw

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of Smart Mentors project of medical stu-

dents’ Association of Rwanda is to establish free con-

tent health information website and mobile applica-

tion in Kinyarwanda. The Smart Mentors project will

focus on provide health information for all Rwandan

who are unable to get those information which are

already accessible in foreign languages and culture.

The content of our website-app will focus mainly on

raising the level of health knowledge among Rwan-

dans. The content will be divided into 3 main catego-

ries: SRHR (sexual and Reproductive Health and

Rights), NCDs (Non Communicable Diseases) and last

but not least communicable diseases.

The content will be generated by trained medical stu-

dents, pharmacy students and clinical psychology stu-

dents of the University of Rwanda, college of Medicine

and Health Sciences. After writing by students, articles

will be revised by health professionals in partnership

with the project prior to be published.

At the beginning of the project, 50 students from 3

health department will be trained in OHI Rwanda pro-

ject. The training will cover many topics but the follow-

ing are important to be sure that we will have a com-

mitted and skilled team: Introductive to website de-

signing and Management, Publication knowledge,

medical ethics, Sexual and Reproductive health over-

view, Non Communicable and communicable diseases

overview.

After the training, the next step will be the ACTION.

Designing an affordable website-Application with

many innovative service and options will take over.

One of the service is “ASK TANTY”. ASK TANTY will be

a chatting room forum of young adolescent to ask and

interact with health care professionals. We believe that

one of the cause of unwanted pregnancy and lack of

sexual knowledge related problems are due to culture

barriers. One of them is the absence of where an ado-

lescent can get a chance to discuss with an adult with-

out a shame. ASK TANTY will be a solution. Adolescent

will be able to discuss with health professionals openly

via our website and Mobile application. Our platform

will have also a news part to increase sensibilization oh

health issues such Mutuele de Sante or preventions of

epidemics such as Malaria, Zika Virus, Ebola,…

The Empower Me training; Second Cohort

Introduction

Differently from the first cohort, the second co-

hort will be attended by medical students, phar-

macists and clinical psychology students because

of its purpose.

The number of participants will also be increased

from 25 in the first to 60 students in the second

cohort.

Focus of the TEM-2

The second cohort of this famous training will fo-

cus on training volunteers of the new SCORP’s

project; “Smart mentors Project”. The project will

be having the mission of improving health of

Rwandans citizen through education via its web-

site and android application.

Who can apply to be part of the training and Pro-

ject?


Training volunteers has always been a

cornerstone in the organization.

The first step in this project will be a three

days training: “The empower Me”


www.medsar.org.rw

METHODOLOGY

All students of University of Rwanda as well as

other universities, colleges in Rwanda are allowed

and welcomed to apply to be participate in the

training.

However, priorities will be given to students stud-

ying in University of Rwanda, Huye campus. Stu-

dents in General Medicine, Pharmacy, Clinical psy-

chology, Business and economics are highly en-

couraged to apply.

Missions and Objectives of TEM-2

MISSION

The mission of Online Health Information Rwanda

Project is to use the current remarkable progress

we achieved in ICT to participate in building a

country where people live healthily.

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of Online Health Information

Rwanda Project are:

1. Use the technology we have in increasing health

literacy of Rwandan population.

2. Working on Sexual Reproduction Health and

Rights via the online system to reach more young

people.

3. Providing health information in Kinyarwanda,

our mother language

4. Increase the research and Writing ability of fu-

ture health care professionals.

5. Integrating health system in Kinyarwanda.

Timeline of the Training

March 17, 2016: opening of applications and pay-

ment

April 10 , 2015: deadline for applications

April 17, 2015: announcing participants

April 22-24, 2015: second cohort of The Empower

Me training

Training to be covered and trainers.

Publications training (all participants): Youth

Literacy Organization (CEO Gilbert RWABIGWI)

Website designing and Management (all partici-

pants): Sylvain

Medical ethics (all participants but simultane-

ously): IFMSA Human Rights trainers

Innovation and Leadership (all participants):

IRADUKUNDA Yves (CEO of ELE RWANDA, and

General Director at Bridge2Rwanda), IRAKOZE

Magnifique.

SRHR (only participants selected to work in

SRHR)

Communicable disease (only participants select-

ed to work in Communicable diseases)

Non Communicable diseases (Only selected peo-

ple to work in NCDs)


Training volunteers has always been a

cornerstone in the organization.

The first step in this project will be a three

days training: “The empower Me”


www.medsar.org.rw

PARTNERS

VI. PARTNERS

One of the strongest point of the project is part-

ners that MEDSAR have. In this project, the Medi-

cal Students’ Association of Rwanda through its

standing Committee on Human rights and Peace

which are considered to own the project will have

many partners but the first one is the Govern-

ment. The following are some of them:

Design and Innovate for Health in Africa

(DIHAfrica)

Rwanda Pharmacy Students’ Association

Clinical Psychology Students Association of

Rwanda

College Of Medicine and Health Sciences at

University of Rwanda

We are also approaching other potential partners

that have many

impacts on our

project; The

Rwanda Medi-

cal Association

and RBC

(Rwanda Bio-

medical Center)

are among

them.


Partnering with Ministry of Health and

Ministry of education as well as the Uni-

versity Administration are among of things

which help MEDSAR to keep up.

NDAYIZEYE Remy, one of Medical Stu-

dents talking with UNFPA Country repre-

sentative.

Magnifique IRAKOZE

one of the greatest

leader of MEDSAR

explaining MED-

SAR’s activity of

FAMILY TV


www.medsar.org.rw

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

The organization structure of our project is key

issue for us to succeed. As in other MEDSAR pro-

ject, the MEDSAR Executive Board will be the

highest commander of the project. They are in

charge of protecting it and supervising all its activ-

ities. Apart from that, the project will have a coor-

dinator, and 3 vice coordinators according to our

three main divisions (SRHR, CDs and NCDs). We

will also have a treasurer, a secretary and ICT

officer.

REFERENCES

HEALTH INFORMATION ASHEALTHCARE,

THE ROLE OF MOBILES IN UNLOCKING-

HEALTH DATA AND WELLNESS

Health literacy The solid facts Editors: Ilo-

na Kickbusch, Jürgen M. Pelikan, Franklin

Apfel & Agis D. Tsouros

Anwer Aqil, Theo Lippeveld, Dairiku Ho-

zumi, “PRISM framework: a paradigm

shift for designing, strengthening and

evaluation routine health information

systems,” Health Policy and Planning 24

(2009): 217-228.


Magnifique IRAKOZE, former

MEDSAR President and Gerard

MBABAZI, current MEDSAR Presi-

dent discussing for the sake of

MEDSAR


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Smart mentors


smart mentors project

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