Doctors and pharmacists can scale-up their skills with DKT’s global, digital platforms
Traditional health training programs have been completely upended in the past two to three years by online learning, as practitioners seek access to knowledge using modalities such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The way consumers seek care and the way providers connect with one another–and with their patients–has completely changed and DKT’s teams have adapted to those dynamic new circumstances, rolling out online “academies” in nearly every region of operation.
There are many exciting examples of these changes across our programs. Myanmar has seen a great deal of political instability in the past three years and that uncertainty has affected the healthcare system, so DKT Myanmar recently collaborated with the UNFPA to launch the “FemHealth Academy” via the Z-Waka platform, to enhance the capacity of healthcare providers via digital training. Eight training videos have been developed in consultation with a renowned local expert in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Nyein Moe Thaw. DKT Country Director Debu Sabathy said the opportunity was ripe to scale video conferencing and create more dynamic ways to reach health providers.
Topics range from how-to’s for popular contraception products such as injectables, to post abortion care; postpartum family planning; family planning counseling; and contraceptive method choice public education. Since the first session was held in June, the channel has gained 344 registrants, with 257 actively participating. The majority of attendees have expertise in family medicine, general practice, and internal medicine.
Related platforms have been launched in the past year and a half in Latin America, the Middle East and other Asian nations. In Brazil, the DKT Academy began enrolling students in June, with nearly 750 practitioners now enrolled. Interested providers can access training videos about IUD insertion, MVA kits, and a variety of DKT’s products, including injectables and implants.
In Egypt, teams have been extremely active training doctors, government partners and the private sector, educating practitioners about miscarriage management and promoting the use of Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) kits. As part of that effort, they launched their website, which links to the Ipas MVA Plus website, providing instructional videos via DKT WomanCare Global in Arabic, with supporting materials for practitioners who have attended DKT trainings, as well as those who want to learn more about methods and materials.
In Indonesia and the Philippines, large webinars are the modality of choice for online engagement, with teams offering a variety of webinars monthly to doctors, pharmacists and midwives. In July, DKT Indonesia collaborated with EMOS (one of the largest online distributors in Indonesia) for the second time to provide counseling and education related to taking oral contraceptive pills (OCs), with more than 1,900 pharmacists attending the training. The same month, teams in Indonesia also collaborated with Alomedika (the largest e-health platform for doctors in Indonesia) to raise awareness about emergency contraception and Postpil specifically, with 491 doctors participating, building on a similar training in May where 1,200 pharmacists logged in to learn more about ECs.
DKT’s affiliates DKT WomanCare Global and Women First Digital (WFD) similarly offer comprehensive training and certification platforms of their own. Women First Digital (WFD), just launched a new toolkit “Online Counseling and Abortion with Pills” on safe2choose.org.
The WFD counseling team designed their toolkit in the form of an online course to enhance the training of online abortion counselors. The course covers strategies to combat abortion stigma; comprehensive sexual and reproductive health knowledge; essential digital safety tools and self-care techniques tailored for counselors. It is important to note that the course is not a manual on how to use abortion pills. Instead, it provides a valuable set of skills for delivering safe and empathetic abortion counseling online.
For more information on these courses and our programs, please contact our country teams directly or send us a message at contactus@dktinternational.org.