Infectious Diseases teaching Europe/Africa Learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

Infectious Diseases teaching Europe/Africa Learning

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

IDEAL (Infectious Diseases Europe Africa Learning) has implemented an innovative teaching on Infectious Diseases for undergraduate and postgraduate medical students in order on one hand to face the infectious challenges related to the increase of multidrug-resistant bacteria, the emergence of new pathogens in the context of climate change and large-scale migration; and on the other hand to address the gaps in Infectious Diseases education in Europe.

It brings together European and Ugandan universities and partner hospitals:
– Université Paris Descartes (FR), coordinator;
– Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Roma(IT);
– NHS Lothian (SCOT);
– Universiteit Antwerpen (BEL);
– Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School (UG);
– St Mary’s Hospital Lacor (UG).

They made the following observation: the worldwide multiplication of multidrug-resistant bacteria, as well as the emergence of new infections and the spread of their vectors beyond their traditional geographical zones is a new challenge that requires new medical skills for a better care and follow-up of patients. At the same time, university medical education does not offer enough practical lessons to develop a “know-how”, whereas Infectious Diseases teaching does not offer for now a global picture of this intrinsically transversal discipline at the interface of epidemiology, clinical skills, microbiology and hard sciences. European education does not sufficiently emphasize the situation of emerging countries, although these regions are those that face most current infectious challenges, such as HIV, malaria or multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

The overall long-term goal was to develop a joint program on Infectious Diseases for European undergraduate medical students by improving students’ knowledge; preparing them for the challenges presented by Infectious Diseases in the context of globalization, immigration and climate change; and by developing e-learning tools promoting exchanges and sharing of knowledge between Europe and Africa.

Three complementary teaching approaches were developed over the three years:

> An Infectious Diseases Intensive Courses organized each year in Paris, Rome, Edinburgh and Antwerp (WP1). These sessions, designed around teacher mobility rather than student mobility, offered a peer-reviewed common curriculum in English that addressed current issues with an international approach. This 35-hour-course replaced the traditional 70-hour-course (Paris and Rome) or complemented it when there was no specific teaching on this subject (Antwerp and Edinburgh).

> An annual summer school on Infectious Diseases, open to students from partner universities and other European and international universities (WP2).

> E-learning and open-access resources available freely on IDEAL website: www.ideal-program.com

The project has been a success as much in terms of teaching (all activities have been very successful with students, the attractiveness of the project has spread to other teachers and other institutions, many other innovative teaching projects have been created under the influence of IDEAL), that in terms of the strength of the partnership (the partners have set up new projects parallel to IDEAL and they continue to work together).

At the end of the IDEAL project, the partners developed two new European projects, which shows the success and the willingness of all the actors to continue to work together and to find funding for the education of the doctors of tomorrow:
> Erasmus + Strategic Partnership untitled IDEAL+ (Infectious Diseases Education through Active Learning): the project offers to go further in innovative teaching and bring together the 4 IDEAL European partners as well as 4 new European institutions;
> Application in 2020 for an Erasmus + Capacity Building Project in Uganda: URIDEAL (Uganda Research Methods & Infectious Diseases teaching Europe Africa Learning).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 251651,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE PARIS DESCARTES & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School, Uganda Martyrs University
• UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
• UNIVERSITA CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE
• LOTHIAN HEALTH BOARD
• ST. MARY’S HOSPITAL LACOR