On Thursday 28 February 2020, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus met at the PAHO/WHO Barbados office, to discuss collaborating on the development of joint courses in Public Health for a certificate program, including a program in Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage.
Sub-regional Program Coordinator, Mrs Jessie Schutt-Aine in her opening remarks welcomed the team from UWI and noted the long history of collaboration between both institutions.
I think this collaboration will be a great opportunity to strengthen learning on Universal Health, ensuring a future cadre of young professionals in the Caribbean, with skills to meet future health challenges.”
Mrs Jessie Schutt-Aine
Dr Benjamin Puertas, Sub-regional Advisor Human Resources, provided a comprehensive overview of PAHO’s Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH). Launched in 2000, he explained that courses representing all of PAHO’s technical areas are available at the regional, sub-regional, and country levels, which could be either self-learning or tutored. Statistics on enrollments, courses offered, professions and demographics of users was also shared.
Dr Puertas noted that an increased number of courses are offered in English, to strengthen the Caribbean node of the campus which was launched in 2017. He also informed that French courses would soon be offered.
Representing the UWI were Director of Medical Education, Dr Azim Majumder, and Faculty Development Facilitator, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Mrs Andrea Marshall, and Lecturer in Public Health & Epidemiology, Dr Heather Harewood.
Dr Harewood provided a complete overview of the courses offered by UWI. She reported that a suite of public health faculty level certificates is offered by the UWI and the plan is to make them more official by presenting a post graduate certificate. She noted a need to revamp combinations of courses offered and establish a credit rating.
There were extensive discussions surrounding the best strategies for developing joint public health courses by both institutions, accreditation and the mode of delivery either in a classroom setting or online. In closing the group discussed time frame for a follow-up meeting and the combination of human resources from both institutions, which would be required to provide valuable input to planning the program.
