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Centre for International Health
Research Project

PRICE - Strengthening Health Systems through Primary Care leaders Education

WHO emphasizes that the best approach for improving the quality and coverage of essential health services and for ensuring the effective use of resources, is to invest in integrated primary health care (PHC) services. The aim of this project is to strengthening the capacity of the training and education system of Family Medicine in Zambia and Malawi.

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PRICE

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Project general objective

is to enable the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS), Malawi and the University of Zambia (School of Public Health) to increase the quantity and quality of their graduates and their education and research programs within PHC. This will establish the next generation of competent and autonomous primary care and public health professionals, and contribute to a resilient health system that can offer integrated, equitable and high quality health services.

For education, activities will comprise:

Curriculum innovation: Curriculum development training, development and revision support workshops, to strengthen the focus on primary care “systems thinking” and values, interdisciplinary skills, research and accountable leadership targeting Bachelor, Masters and PhD programs. 

Community to-Clinic Bridged Training: In Malawi MMed training in FM takes place in District hospitals. In Zambia we will work closely with the MOH to develop a connection between community and facility based training to provide a whole continuum of primary care training and practice base.

For research, activities will comprise:

Annual PHC research proposal development workshops facilitated by experienced faculty researchers and supported by the University of Bergen (UiB) and/or Primafamed.

Joint supervision to build stronger teams to support students and PhD candidates

Data analysis workshops to support candidates/students after data collection

Scientific writing workshops to support candidates/students during manuscript writing to make the process more effective and improve the quality of the texts.

Project group members

University of Bergen, Norway 
Project investigator, MD, PhDThomas Mildestvedt
Professor, MDIngvild Sandøy
Professor emeritus, MDEivind Meland

Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS),
Malawi

 
Project coordinator​Dorothee Van Breevoort
Stakeholders, Primafamed​Martha Makwero​​
PhD, research Duncan Kwaitana 
PhD, research Luckson Dullie​

University of Zambia, Zambia

 
Project coordinator​, Post doc.Mpundu Chikoya
Project coordinator​Joseph Zulu

Stellenbosch University, South Africa

 
Professor, coordinator PrimafamedBob Mash
  

Target groups

The project will target the following groups:

  • Preservice and in-service Clinical Officers (Diploma and Bachelor degree level) who are the frontline workers in PHC
  • Inservice District Health Officers (Bachelor level)
  • Post internship medical graduates to enroll in the Masters of Family Medicine program
  • Junior faculty members of staff who wish to pursue a doctorate (PhD) in PHC Primary Care
  • Researchers and Lecturers – enhancing pedagogical skills to improve quality of education Primary care teams already working in primary care.