Pan-African Conference 21 - 24 July 2002 Inter-Continental Hotel ...

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Abstracts 10/22/02 11:26 AM Page 10 S10 This paper provides insight into the development of the SA HealthInfo knowledge network, the rationale behind the design of the system and share experiences as regards the development of the Nutrition Module. It also reflects on the experience as regards the use of such systems in a developingworld context, ICT issues at stake and the need to interact with other relevant gateways and portal initiatives. ICT: New technologies, and their relevance, challenges and opportunities in the health sector / La technologie de l’information et de la communication Salah Mandil, Ph.D. Vice President eStrategies, WiseKey S.A, Geneva, Switzerland The past 20 or so years have been rich with excitement and unequivocal expressions of the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the health sector. The material of discussion groups, workshops and conferences abound with that excitement and, though to a lesser extent, examples of the uses of such ICT tools in heath care have also been reported. In more recent years, the excitement has multiplied with the emergence of new Clinical and Health Care Technologies and Practices, so much that some hail it as an emerging New Healthcare Paradigm. This invited address will highlight the most important of these new ICT and ICT-based technologies, and point out the extent to which these are relevant to the industrially developing countries. Actual examples, exclusively from developing countries, will be briefly described in testimony to the views. The examples will include applications in clinical care, knowledge-based systems, surveillance and the management of health care services. The address will also highlight the current challenges that have to be tackled, and the opportunities that could and should be grabbed to cultivate these ICT technologies for the achievement of equitable and quality health care services especially to the under-served communities. Capacity building for human rights using ICTs: lessons for nutrition programming / Développement de capacités en TIC: Leçons des programmes de nutrition Firoze Manji The Micronutrient Initiative, Canada This presentation will describe the ways in which Fahamu has sought to use ICTs for strengthening the campaigning, advocacy and organisational capacities of human rights organisations in southern Africa. The project1 arose from detailed investigations in the region of their training needs and constraints to accessing ICTs. Access to the Web is problematic for most organisations in the region because of high costs, low bandwidth and poor telephone connections. As an alternative, we have developed interactive CDROM-based learning materials for distance learning, with tutoring support provided via email and regional face-to-face workshops. Courses developed include: fact-finding and investigation; human rights monitoring and evaluation; campaigning, advocacy and lobbying; leadership and management; financial management; fundraising; using the internet for research and advocacy; and training of trainers. The strategy in the development of these courses has been to use ICTs as a complement, rather than a substitute, for direct human interaction. Lack of access to the web also creates serious difficulties for human rights organisations in accessing information and news about what is happening in the region. We therefore developed a weekly electronic newsletter covering some 20 topics as diverse as conflict, human rights, development, environment, health, social welfare, books and arts, internet resources. The newsletter provides a weekly summary of developments on these subjects. The initiative has been hugely popular, with the subscriber based growing from 300 to nearly 8000 in a year. The key to the success of these initiatives has been to invest efforts to ensure a clear understanding of the needs of the target constituency, both in relation to their training needs and their need for information. Similar programmes could be realistically adopted for nutrition programming based on a careful assessment of the needs of that constituency, and the recruitment of appropriate experts to develop effective materials. 1 The ‘Adilisha Project’ is supported by grants from the European Union, the British Department for International Development, and the Canadian International Development Research Centre July 2002, Vol. 15, No. 2 SAJCN (Supplement) ABSTRACTS PROFILES: A computer-based process for nutrition policy analysis and advocacy / Plaidoyer pour les décideurs politiques R Mwadime 1 , J Ross 2 and H Stiefel 2 1 The Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care, Kampala, Uganda, 2 The Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC, USA PROFILES is a process for nutrition policy analysis and advocacy that uses spreadsheet models to estimate the functional consequences of malnutrition in terms that policy makers understand and care about. Nutritional problems addressed include sub-optimal infant feeding practices, underweight, stunting, iron-deficiency, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency. Using local demographic, economic and nutrition data, the consequences of these problems are quantified in terms of performance, health and survival. The implications for economic development, education and the health sector are emphasised. The PROFILES process typically includes the following steps: 1) identification of nutrition policy reform priorities; 2) use of spreadsheet models to quantify the potential gains in health, survival and economic productivity due to feasible improvements in nutrition; 3) development of a long term strategy for policy dialogue that uses these estimates to argue for increased investment in key nutrition interventions; and 4) preparation of computer-based and other policy communication tools to advance these arguments. These activities typically occur during a 2-week workshop involving 10 - 15 local nutrition advocates and up to 3 facilitators. PROFILES has been used in over 20 countries worldwide. A recent review of PROFILES experience in Africa has led to a number of suggestions for improving the process, including paying greater attention to step 1 (see above) and doing more to ensure continuity after the initial workshop. In addition to some important policy successes, PROFILES has been credited with helping to establish or strengthen nutrition networks, increase capacity, and identify information gaps. Future plans include the addition of models that quantify between malnutrition and chronic diseases, increasing regional institutional capacity to facilitate the PROFILES process, increasing the number and variety of communication channels used, and making the process more flexible and adaptable to decentralised (community or district-level) decision making. IT and nutrition training / Le rôle de la TI dans la formation en nutrition Britta Ogle, PhD Dept of Rural Development Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden Trainers throughout history have made use of new technologies to stimulate interest and to facilitate learning. Educational theories for some time have emphasised relevance, problem-based approaches and learner-centered training. Nutrition falls within the responsibility of many disciplines. Relevant nutrition training requires preparing trainees in assessment and analysis of nutrition-related community health and food problems, conducting relevant research, implementing nutrition activities, educating the population and evaluating institutions, policies and actions. Young people in the South who are now training as nutritionists, doctors, nurses, agronomists and food scientists are facing tremendous challenges as decision makers and resource persons in their own countries. All efforts to strengthen the capacity of these professionals are of outmost importance for improvements in nutrition and the use of IT must be part of this. Developments in the field of modern information technologies (IT) have been dramatic and offers many opportunities for academic trainers world-wide. For once the South and the North have the possibility to a more equal access to new research findings, new discoveries within the subject area, more equal access to debates, dialogues, conferences and informal exchange of information and ideas. An increasing number of software applications are available for both staff and students to use in numerous ways for individual learning, for communication, in field projects, distance training or examination. What advantages can this bring to nutrition training and what changes are required in nutrition training to make optimal use of these technologies, especially in the South? A key group to reach are academicians at university departments or similar institutions in the South, who are actively involved in higher nutrition training of nutritionists, medical or other health professionals, or food scientists or nutrition in agriculture professionals. The Global NutrITion programme is designed specifically for this target group. It combines an updating of current nutrition concerns with computer skills training and provides a basis for
Abstracts 10/22/02 11:26 AM Page 11 stronger networks among academic trainers through the use of IT. Trainers get opportunities to use numerous available soft ware applications, test problem based learning, web-based distance training and web conferencing, discuss computer pedagogics and produce computer assisted learning materials. The lecture will raise key issues on IT in nutrition training in the South on the basis of experiences from the Global NutrITion programme. Information technology in nutrition research / La TI dans la recherche nutritionnelle Adelheid W. Onyango, PhD Department of Nutrition for Health and Development, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland A research project advances in various stages, from formulating a hypothesis through designing the investigation, drawing a sample, collecting and analyzing data, writing up the research report to getting it published. IT is relevant to each of these stages of research. Interest in a specific research question is often provoked by something one observes or reads about. The logical next step is to attempt an understanding of what is already known about the subject. Given the limited selection of print journals available in African universities and research institutions, IT can serve a pivotal role as a source of information. The occasional researcher can access a limited scope of scientific literature on the internet. However, individuals and institutions engaged in research have the option of subscribing to electronic scientific journals. In this respect, the recently launched internet initiative, “Access to Research” for developing countries is good news for biomedical researchers in Africa. The initiative makes more than two thousand journals available free or at significantly reduced charges to institutions in eligible countries (See Health InterNetwork website: http://www.healthinternetwork.org). Once relevant literature has been reviewed, the hypothesis or research question formulated and a study design chosen, the researcher has to determine, adapt and refine methods and obtain study equipment if required. IT can be a useful search tool for contact addresses of researchers that one may wish to consult with and companies that supply the equipment required for the study (e.g., http://www.google.com). Data management and analysis require a computer, and with an internet link, one could download programmes for data management and analysis. A good example is Epi Info, a programme developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and available free of charge. This programme has modules for calculating sample size, designing a questionnaire that forms a template for data entry, can be set up to check consistency of data and includes some analysis routines. Epi Info should be of special interest to Nutrition researchers using anthropometry as it calculates anthropometric indicators for children and adolescents (http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo). Research results need to be disseminated through publication, and many peer review journals now require electronic submission of manuscripts, a development that greatly speeds up correspondence with reviewers and editors, thanks to IT. In addition to print journals, it is now possible to publish in electronic research archives such as the one launched by the Lancet in 1999 for purposes of publishing research that does not make it to the print journal but which is of interest to, for example, regional readership. Other outlets for research are databases maintained by United Nations agencies and others. The Department of Nutrition for Health and Development at WHO maintains six databases on different subjects in nutrition. The most widely used among them is the Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition (http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/). Although Africa is far behind the industrialized world in access to IT, a single internet connection in a given institution can facilitate access by thousands of researchers and students to information that has potential to change the quality of research and the efficiency and scale of its dissemination. The opportunities offered by IT are a capital challenge to every researcher on this continent to radically improve the quantity and quality of African research by African researchers. Food Composition Programme of AFROFOODS / Base de données sur la composition des aliments: AFROFOODS HC Schönfeldt and SM van Heerden* AFROFOODS coordinator, Centre for Nutrition, University of Pretoria, South Africa *Animal Nutrition and Animal Products Institute, Agricultural Research Council. Private Bag X2, Irene, South Africa ABSTRACTS During the African Food and Nutrition congress held in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1988 the following problems were identified namely: Inadequate or complete lack of food composition tables in a number of African countries; incomplete and poor quality of available food composition data; lack of necessary equipment and human resources for food analysis activities; lack of coordination at regional and sub regional levels; lack of a forum for the exchange of information in the area of food composition. An African Network of Food Data System (AFROFOODS) as part of INFOODS (International Network of Food Data Systems) was established in September 1994 in Ghana. This was followed by a meeting in Dakar (Ghana) during May 1995 during which activities was reestablished. Capacity building and training in analytical methods and compilation of food composition data were identified as a pre-requisite for progress during both meetings. During a workshop in Cape Town, South Africa (6-8 May 1996) a module on Food Composition and Hygiene for an M Sc in Food and Nutrition Sciences in developing countries for the Network of European Agricultural Universities (NATURA) - NECTAR group on as part of a EU-financed programme was drawn up. The module was based on the existing Food Composition Course of Wageningen Agricultural University and was first tested in South Africa during 1997 in Cape Town. The 1st ECSAFOODS course on the Production and Use of Food Composition Data in Nutrition was held from 23 June to 11 July 1997 at the University of the Western Cape, the 2nd ECSAFOODS course was held from 5 – 27 June 1999 at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in Pretoria, South Africa. A third ECSAFOODS course will be held from 14 October 2002 to 1 November 2002 in Pretoria, South Africa. AFROFOODS seem to lag behind other data centers with regard to the progress they have made during the same time period. Capacity building in the AFROFOODS region stays one of the mayor priorities for the immediate future, to equip people to assist their own countries in reaching the ultimate goal of being able to compile good quality food composition tables that reflect the individual food components in the diet of the different people within the country. IT an important tool in surveillance of food borne infections/intoxications and identification of contributing factors for outbreaks / La TI: un outil important dans la surveillance des infections et intoxications alimentaires et dans l’identification des facteurs contribuant aux épidémies Walter E.L. Spiess c/o Institut fuer Lebensmittelverfahrenstechnik, Universitaet Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe In the last decade the contamination of food with several dangerous pathogenic micro-organism has reached a dimension that it has to be considered as a serious health threat to the consumer. In order to deal successfully with this situation it is important to understand precisely the dimensions of the problem and the various causes of the problem. One of the prerequisites of a problem definition are national foodborne diseases surveillance systems on the basis of a mandatory notification of foodborne diseases outbreaks, surveillance data from national reference laboratories and e.g. national hospital networks. Besides the notification of cases of foodborne diseases, confirmed causative agents in foodborne outbreaks, incriminated foods and confirmed or suspected causative agents, as well as outbreaks by places where food was acquired or eaten and contributing factors have to be reported. Such surveillance systems require a rather complicated infrastructure which is based amongst others on a sophisticated IT system/Network. On the basis of individual national reports and the 7th Report of the WHO Surveillance Progamme for Control of Food borne Infections and Intoxication in Europe surveillance systems are presented and data obtained within the frame of such systems are discussed with respect of ensuring food safety and food hygiene. Hardware, software, people-ware in nutrition / Matériel, logiciel et ressources humaines en nutrition T Tylleskär Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, Norway In the 70’s it was suggested that the ‘developing countries’ should not necessary follow the technological development of the so-called ‘western countries’. The idea of “appropriate technology” was widely supported in discussions on global development. Another thirty years of development has demonstrated that the technological advances are unifying all countries into the same technological development. Mobile phones could easily have been S11
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