Volume Two - Academic Conferences

4. Discussion and conclusion
Cees Th. Smit Sibinga
At the turn of the 20st century the need for an educational development programme for potential
managers and leadership in blood transfusion was recognized by WHO. The question asked was how
to create a specific curriculum that would provide both knowledge and managerial/leadership skills in
blood transfusion and would provide access to such potential all over the world without the need for a
longer absence from the base in the home country. Most countries were and are still in a transition
and have initiated developments at national level based on the WHO recommendations and the WHO
Essential Health Technology Department of Blood Safety Strategic Plan 2000-2003 [6]. In such
situation identified and appointed competent leadership needs to be on the spot and not so much
send abroad for a period of 2 to 3 years.
The solution is in distance learning [7] and in particular in eLearning for the acquisition of the
necessary knowledge load, to be completed by a relatively short period of six months for real time
exposure to the practice of management and leadership in an appropriate and developed transfusion
medicine environment [4]. Such environments are to be found in the more advanced world. During the
same period a series of additional management related tutorials then could be provided through an
academic teaching institute in relation to the real time exposure.
4.1 Expectations
The MMTM eLearning curriculum has two clusters, one teaching the essentials of management
(organisation and structure, legislative and regulatory aspects, human resource management and the
finance and economical aspect) and a second cluster that focuses on the management of a larger
national blood supply structure (societal interface, clinical interface, process management and quality
management). In principle the modules would allow a 12 months study period [4]. However, due to a
series of conditions it so far has turned out to be substantially longer. The full course is concluded
with a thesis at post-academic level of contents and leads to the formal University of Groningen postacademic
Masters title MMTM – Master of Management of Transfusion Medicine.
The reasons analysed in this and the previous study [5] differ between countries and fellows.
Where the personal experiences with the eLearning part of the course relate largely to the level of
academic background, intellectual comprehension and attitude, there are more conditions that are
related to the societal infrastructure and its functioning.
4.2 Differences observed
The differences observed over the five year period can be classified into differences in academic level
of the fellows [5] and differences in environment and climate needed for a smooth and problem free
operation and performance of the eLearning part of the MMTM course.
4.2.1 Differences in academic level
As mentioned a prime entrance criteria is an academic level education to be evidenced with a
University Masters of Science diploma and the period over which the academic education has been
followed. All fellows have met this criteria. However, during the eLearning period is was observed that
the levels differ. Most of the fellows (e.g. Eritrea, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, but also Singapore)
have a difficulty with the post-academic level of the module contents and this is particularly
demonstrated in the level of comprehension of the modules on organisation and structure (module 1)
and on finance and economy (module 5). Also the module 8 on process management showed some
difficulties of comprehension at intellectual level. This was more prominent with those from the African
continent than with the fellow from Singapore.
Besides, the differences in levels come very clearly to live with the design of the thesis project, the
project proposal and the applied scientific work to be done for the thesis. Some are acceptably
familiar, but others show quite some difficulty in the design and writing of the proposal (e.g. Uganda,
Zambia, Tanzania). Apparently the academic education in these countries does not prepare for an
academic level attitude and curiosity, and does not foresee in basic intellectual training for scientific
work to be done.
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