ObjectivesIDEAL project will develop a joint international curriculum in Infectious Diseases in English for European undergraduate students and African students from Uganda. ContextCurrent worldwide spreading of multi-resistant bacteria, along with major recent outbreaks and massive immigration underline the need for strong updated skills in the field for all physicians involved in patients’ care. Meanwhile, current academic teaching does not provide enough practical teaching, and a global view of a discipline that is transversal at the interface of epidemiology, microbiology, bedside management and science. Current European knowledge does not either provide the perspective of emerging countries, although these areas are those facing most of the current infectious challenges, like HIV, malaria, multiresistant tuberculosis or highly transmittable haemorrhagic fevers. ImplementationTo reach these goals, we propose an innovative curriculum targeting undergraduate students from Europe and African countries, delivered in English by a team of teachers combining expertise in Pedagogy, Infectious Diseases, Internal Medicine, Public Health, Microbiology, Pathology and Science. Frontal lectures will be combined with interactive seminars, clinical cases, tests and videos, to promote interactivity and practical teaching.All teaching material (power points, video-recording of the lectures, clinical cases and tests will be provided through an interactive web interface.Deliverables will be split in 3 work packages: WP1 =I3DC: International Intensive Infectious Disease Course for European Students delivered over a week for students of Paris Descartes University, Edinburgh Medical University, University of Antwerpen and University of the Sacred Heart of Roma. This curriculum was implemented 3 years ago successfully in Paris, Roma and Edinburgh, and is now offered as an alternative course to the classical curriculum, recognized by 5 ECTS in Paris and Roma. WP2: Infectious Diseases Summer School providing advanced teaching for undergraduate European Students with the involvement of European and Ugandan teachers and their unvaluable practical experience, focusing on Infections in emerging countries (in Africa mainly), current major “hot topics” in infectious Diseases, such as immigration burdens, and outbreaks. .WP3: Distant-learning providing all the teaching material implemented in WP1 and WP2 to participating Ugandan partners (Mary Lacor Hospital of Gulu and Mother Kevin Postgraduate Medical School in Kampala).FeasibilityThe I3DC project is already running as an optional curriculum in Paris Descartes University Edinburgh Medical University and Università Cattolica di Roma since 3 years, underlying the feasibility of the project, the strong involvement of the teaching team and the strong commitment of these universities in the internationalization process. The consortium members share strong expertise in their field, with experience in managing large scale educational and/or research projects that contributes to the project’s success. PerspectivesThe global IDEAL project will improve the quality and relevance of undergraduate Infectious Diseases teaching within Europe. It will create a forum of experienced teachers being a reference for any countries. It will develop a common strong expertise among medical students in Europe, enhance their international perspective and promote “global health concepts at an early stage of their undergraduate medical curricula. It promotes teachers’ and students’ mobility by creating a strong network of interactions between European Universities and beyond.The project will develop sustainable updated high-level learning tools (tailored courses, e-learning platform) that can be shared with other partners from Europe and other countries facing similar unmet needs.
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).