East African Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

THE DEADLINE DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS FOR 2013 IS SATURDAY, 1ST DECEMBER 2012. APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER THIS DATE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

WE ARE CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2013 COURSE. APPLY ONLINE USING THE APPLICATION FORM AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

Course Dates : 26th August 2013 - 22nd November 2013

The East African Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene is a postgraduate certificate awarded by LSHTM. It is a three month, full time short course taught by School staff and colleagues in Tanzania and Uganda. It is designed for doctors planning to work in Africa.

Course aims and philosophy

LSHTM has been providing advanced training in global health policy and practice for over a century. The School’s alumni work in more than 160 countries and many hold prominent positions in health ministries, universities and international organisations. The current London-based DTM&H is highly respected and heavily oversubscribed.
The new East African DTM&H takes the essence of the London course and translates it in to an African context. It emphasises experiential learning by immersing students in the clinical and public health issues facing African doctors today. Small group sessions are led by experienced physicians and at least a quarter of the course material is directly related to clinical practice.
A proportion of the fees paid by international students will be used to fund low cost scholarships for East African physicians. We will reserve at least a third of the places for local doctors as part of our commitment to building capacity for postgraduate medicine in the region. We think this residential course will be enriched by the academic and social mixing between overseas and African doctors.
On completing the course we hope you will have gained an insight in to the practical realities of healthcare in East Africa. You should be able to evaluate the evidence for various health interventions, both public and individual, and make a safe and competent assessment of sick patients. In essence we intend the course to prepare you for a broad range of health work in Africa.

Course outline

Around two thirds of the course will focus on tropical infectious diseases, including TB, HIV and malaria. Students will also spend a week in the laboratory learning how to identify parasitic infections. The practical work will be accompanied by clinical case-based discussions. The remaining third of the course will be spent examining contemporary issues in East African healthcare, including the clinical assessment of infants and children, maternal health in resource-limited settings and an introduction to clinical epidemiology.
The curriculum is divided in to core and optional units. The three options weeks include a rural healthcare project in Tanzania and two student-selected units (SSU) in Uganda, one of which takes students outside Kampala. SSUs provide groups of 8 – 10 students with an opportunity to explore an area of policy or practice in more depth. There are ten SSUs ranging from neglected tropical diseases, such as trypanosomiasis control programmes, to refugee health and cancer & palliative care.
One of the major benefits of holding the DTM&H in Africa is access to patients. Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre and Mulago Hospital in Kampala both have important teaching functions as regional referral hospitals and centres for medical education. Students will spend part of each day on the wards reviewing patients and joining in the local teaching programmes. We will provide specific training in teaching skills and support students to develop their own teaching portfolios.
An outline of the course programme will soon be available at www.tropmedafrica.org

Examination and accreditation

The East African DTM&H has been approved by LSHTM Senate as a postgraduate certificate qualification. It will be awarded by LSHTM following satisfactory assessment of course work and successful completion of an end of course examination. We have applied to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to accredit the course for the Certificate of Knowledge Examination. A DTM&H qualification is required by UK physicians intending to complete clinical training in Tropical Medicine.
The examination consists of a multiple-choice question paper, a data interpretation paper, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and a viva voce. In addition a substantial proportion of the final marks will come from project work assessed during the course. All borderline and distinction candidates will be discussed by the examination board.

Course Director

Philip Gothard, Consultant Physician, Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London
philip.gothard@gmail.com

Teaching faculty

The East African DTM&H is a formal collaboration between LSHTM, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, Makerere University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington. The teaching faculty comes predominantly from these five partner institutions. Most academic staff have lived and worked in Africa and many are world leaders in their field. A list of the staff who taught on the 2010 pilot course will soon be available at www.tropmedafrica.org.

Location

The first six weeks of the course will be held at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College in Moshi, Tanzania. Moshi is a beautiful green town on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro with an average temperature of 28⁰C. It is relatively safe and peaceful. The course then breaks for half term giving students time to travel to the coast, climb the mountain or take in a safari.
The second half of the course is based at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Students from the 2010 pilot course have produced a practical guide which will soon be available at www.tropmedafrica.org. The third week in Uganda takes place outside Kampala. During the trip students will have an opportunity to spend a long weekend at one of Uganda’s national parks.

Accommodation

The cost of accommodation is not included in the course fee. We strongly recommend students to take a place in one of the hostels provided by the course. In 2011, the cost was £15 per night including breakfast (£1350 for the duration of the course). This is much cheaper than the open market and allows students to mix easily with colleagues in the evenings. All the hostels in Moshi and Kampala are clean and secure with single rooms and hot water; most are within walking distance of the hospital and some are self-catering.

Tuition fees for self-funding participants

Tuition fees for 2013 are £6,300.

Further information

We are happy to discuss the course with potential applicants. For enquiries about the content of the East African DTM&H please email philip.gothard@gmail.com and copy to shortcourses@lshtm.ac.uk.
The East African DTM&H external website, www.tropmedafrica.org, contains feedback from students who attended the 2010 pilot course, details of the 2011 programme and biographies of the teaching faculty.

Student profile

Dr Samson Okello, Resident in Internal Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda
Participant in the 2010 Pilot East African Short Course in Tropical Medicine
“Some things were not clear before the course but now my method of teaching the undergrads has changed courtesy of you, and the students like it. Also I have changed my attitude towards patients; I listen to them more than before and feel they are my friends and not just ‘patients’. Now here is the big one, every time I meet challenges in my practice, I develop a research idea… I don’t know for sure where this will end up but let’s watch out!”

Applications

The East African DTM&H is open to doctors who hold a medical qualification from a recognised medical school in any country and who are registered for medical practice in that country. In exceptional circumstances, and after discussion by the examination board, specialist nurses and assistant medical officers with equivalent experience may be admitted. Applicants are advised to apply as soon as possible as we expect the course to be oversubscribed.
One third of places will be awarded to East African physicians. Scholarships will be awarded competitively by direct application to our partner institutions: in Tanzania this is Professor Ben Hamel, Dean of Postgraduate Studies, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, Moshi; and in Uganda this is Professor Moses Joloba, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Makerere University.
NB: only apply through LSHTM if you are able to pay international fees. Applications for African scholarships should go through KCMC or Makerere University.
Applicants must have a good standard of written and spoken English and of English comprehension. LSHTM may ask applicants to provide evidence of a satisfactory standard of English; a list of approved tests is available on request.

How to apply for 2013

As part of the assessment process we would like you to submit a 500 - 800 word article on ' the current crisis in human resources for health in Africa'. The article should be written in the style of an editorial from an academic journal such as the Lancet and should include references. The references do not count towards the word limit.  The essay should be uploaded on the final page (page 9) of the online application form.
Please complete the ONLINE APPLICATION FORM
THE DEADLINE DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS FOR 2013 IS SATURDAY, 1ST DECEMBER 2012.  APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER THIS DATE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.