Vocational Training Team On Its Way
Press release about Vocational Training Project that was conceived via a casual conversation between Bill Davis and others on a plane trip.
JoiRotary Club of Kampala North
PRESS RELEASE..
ROTARY AND ITS PARTNERS TEAM UP TO PROVIDE MORE TRAINING FOR DOCTORS IN CADIAC SURGERY AND CARE
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE:1st November 2013
The Rotary Club of Kampala North is sending a team of doctors (Vocational Training Team (VTT)) from Mulago Hospital from 2nd to 16th November 2013 to Texas Children's Hospital.
A vocational training team (VTT) is a group of professionals who travel to another country either to learn more about their profession or to teach
local professionals about a particular field. VTTs take the Global Study Exchange concept of enabling young professionals to observe their profession in another country a step further by offering participants the opportunity to use their skills to help others.
This particular VTT will provide hands on activities to train medical professionals from the Heart Institute, Mulago on cardiac surgery and care in order to increase their capacity to solve problems and improve the quality of life of the Ugandan population.
The team of doctors will be observing for learning purposes, best practices in heart surgery for children with heart disease at the Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston. The Host Institution is the Baylor College of Medicine.
A second VTT is expected to travel in March 2014 and the schedules are on track.
The main objective of this training is to acquaint the Trainees with best practices in running an efficient surgery and care programme, looking at quality, timeliness, and appropriate patient management. This will be coupled with learning current practices and a deeper understanding of the rationale of the practices in the different areas of activity related to heart disease.
The Trainees will be expected to formulate ideas/plans on how best they can translate what they will have learnt into an improved care system at the Uganda Heart Institute.
The outcome will be earlier detection of congenital heart disease in children; reduced mortality during or post-surgery; and better guidance to parents and guardians responsible for post-operative care.
The Team is 11 people, including two Rotarian doctors. The Team Leader is Dr Isaac Okullo. If Texas Children’s Hospital accepts to break this down into two teams, the other Rotarian doctor, Dr Deo Sekimpi, will lead the second team.
This mission is supported by the Rotary Club of Kampala North (Being the international Host here), The Rotary Club of West (U) Houston, The Rotary Foundation, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. Rotary Districts D9211(Formerly 9200) and D5890. The Project Value is $34,100 of which $16,550 is contributed by the Rotary Foundation.
Rotary International is a volunteer Organization made up of over 1.2 million business and professional leaders in 34,000 clubs in more than 200 countries worldwide, who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary is involved in a number of humanitarian activities, heart surgery being one of them.
Texas Children’s Hospital, located in Houston, Texas, is a not-for-profit organization committed to creating a community of healthy children through excellence in patient care, education and research. For nearly 60 years, Texas Children’s has offered health and hope to children and their families Nationally ranked Texas Children’s Hospital is nationally ranked among the nation’s top children’s hospitals by U.S.News & World Report and Parents magazine.
The Uganda Heart Institute Ltd (UHI) is a semi-autonomous institution of Mulago Hospital Complex and serves as a center for the provision of curative and preventive cardiovascular and thoracic medical services. The institute’s vision is to become a center of excellence in the care of heart and heart related diseases in the great Lakes region of Africa and beyond. The center has been increasing in its ability to provide care to Ugandan children with congenital heart defects. Over 300 children have received surgery since 2009.