Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

UNC Project - Uganda

last updated Dec 14, 2011

Overview

Implementing organization: 
Amal Murarka International Pediatric Health Foundation
Implementation Partner(s): 
Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2008
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
All income levels

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
GE Foundation, IGHID

Technology

Technology Used: 
Computer › Internet, Computer › Video-conference
Technology Purpose: 
Improving Diagnosis and Treatment

Scale

Other Measures of Scale: 
Since 2005, UNC Project-Uganda has performed 32 successful pediatric open heart surgeries and trained over 100 Ugandan pediatric health care professionals.
Summary: 

This program consists of a connection made between the School of Medicine at Makerere University in Uganda and the University of North Carolina. A telemedicine connection has been developed between the two entities to support more frequent communication and allow for eLearning.

Program goals/rationale: 

UNC Project-Uganda aims to incorporate telemedicine and distance learning to improve the health of the Ugandan people by improving the education and training of Uganda physicians and healthcare providers.

Key program components: 

The UNC Project-Uganda organizes missions to Kampala, Uganda to provide corrective surgery to children with congenital heart defects at Mulago Hospital, and the team also normally offers additional training to Ugandan health care workers to enable them to perform the procedures themselves. In order to establish a more permanent link between these entities, a telemedicine connection has been established. The ability to observe procedures via videoconferencing will provide ongoing learning opportunities for health care workers in Uganda and help to ensure UNC Project−Uganda’s sustainability.

Program history: 

The Amal Murarka International Pediatric Health Foundation was founded in 2004 in honor of Dr. Amal Murarka, a faculty physician at UNC who had worked in Uganda. Through the foundation, a team of UNC clinicians established Uganda’s first pediatric intensive care unit at Mulago Hospital and went on to focus on pediatric cardiac surgery.

At the end of 2008, the team formed a partnership with the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases to formally recognize these efforts and establish the UNC Project-Uganda whose mission is to support sustainable delivery of compassionate and competent health care to infants, children, and adolescents in Uganda and to improve the medical knowledge of the Ugandan health care workforce.

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