[e-drug] Teaching Aids At Low Cost and CD-ROMs

[Beverley Snell <bev@burnet.edu.au>]

E-drug: Teaching Aids At Low Cost and CD-ROMs
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[Cross-posted from HIF-net <hif-net@who.int>. Thanks. BS]

Teaching Aids At Low Cost (TALC) expects to become a major
distributor of CD-ROMs. TALC started providing sets of 24 slides
for just 6 old shillings (30 pence) in the 60's and reached a peak in
the mid '80s, with a total distribution of 7 million. Since then books
have become our priority with a distribution of over a million. From
next year we hope the distribution of CD-ROMs will steadily
increase and we will have a subsidiary 'e-TALC'.

Among the printed material most useful in countries of the South,
the free newsletters put out by such organisation as Healthlink
World Wide, Tear Fund, etc are read widely and popular. Thanks to
a grant from DFID TALC will be opening an office in Oxford which
will put these newsletters and other materials on to CD-ROMs for
free distribution. Oxford has been chosen because our collaborators
the anaesthetists are based there and there is also a pool of
students with IT knowledge who can be employed part time to
undertake the creation of easily understood CD-ROMs.

TALC has also assembled a list of at least a dozen free or low cost
CD-ROMs these covering a number of subjects, including malaria,
orthopaedics, and tuberculosis. We would hope that within a year
or two we could supply hospital and health units with a carefully
selected list of free or low cost CD-ROMs, which would cover most
subjects. This is necessary as in so many parts of the world access
to web sites are both difficult and expensive.

Our expectation is that this material will be appropriate for initial
and ongoing education. The senior health worker should be able to
access in the future information on conditions such as Eclampsia
which can be printed off and given to students before they
undertake teaching sessions involving a patient with the condition.
Individual students preparing to present a case would be taught to
access relevant material.

For obvious reasons publishers are likely to be reticent in allowing
their books to be available on CD-ROMs which can be printed out.
However there are those who see the possibility of using this media
to be bring better health care to countries of the South. TALC
hopes to hear from anybody who knows of such material.

Prof. David Morley
United Kingdom
e-mail: David@morleydc.demon.co.uk


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