News

Clinical Care Options (CCO) is proud to announce that their novel platform inPractice Africa was the focus of a poster presentation this week at the Global Education and Technology Health (GETHealth) Summit in Dublin, Ireland. Titled “inPractice® Africa: A Unique Offline and Online Interactive Training and Point-of-Care Resource to Provide Digital Medical Education in Settings With Limited or No Internet Access” and presented by Edward King, MA, Chief Innovation Officer for CCO, the poster highlighted key learnings from the introduction and use of inPractice Africa, an innovative training and point-of-care reference tool created to support South African clinicians in the management of HIV-infected patients.

Designed to deliver digital education to online and offline devices in resource-constrained settings, inPractice Africa is regularly updated and can be used both for structured training with CPD credit or to quickly search for answers at the point of care. It is available via the inPracticeAfrica.com Web site, an installable Windows application, and Apple and Android apps for smartphones and tablets.

inPractice Africa was developed in cooperation with the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) and the University of the Witwatersrand and made possible by a public–private partnership grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and grants from Abbott, Gilead Sciences, Janssen, and Merck pharmaceutical companies, as well as a major investment from Clinical Care Options, LLC.

The poster presentation was authored by Mr. King along with Dr. Jeffrey Drezner, Managing Director, CCO; Dr. Ian M. Sanne, Editor in Chief, inPractice Africa; and Dr. Gustaaf Wolvaardt, Managing Director, FPD.

“It was a great pleasure to share our work from South Africa with our colleagues in Dublin,” said Mr. King. “As noted in our presentation, the use of digital medical education and decision support systems is critical for best care. Yet, in resource-constrained settings, its use is hampered by lack of Internet availability, poor reliability, low bandwidth, and/or cost of service. inPractice Africa addresses these challenges through unique technologies that translate the benefits of online digital education to offline devices.

“This pilot program in South Africa has shown that the right platform can provide structured training and answers to clinical questions at the point of care, even in these resource-challenged areas,” continued Mr. King. “This flexible platform can be expanded and tailored to meet the specific curricula and in-service training needs of individual host countries, and our current discussions with funders, partner organizations, and ministries of health across Africa have identified opportunities for future expansion of the platform across the continent.”

View the poster here.

About Clinical Care Options 
Clinical Care Options, LLC, is the leader in the development of innovative educational technology platforms that integrate all levels of medical education and information with personalization and moderated social media. CCO has been a pioneer in the creation of continuing education and decision support resources for healthcare professionals both in the United States and around the globe for more than a decade. For more information, visit clinicaloptions.com.

inPractice Africa was developed in cooperation with the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) and the University of the Witwatersrand and made possible by a public–private partnership grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and grants from Abbott, Gilead Sciences, Janssen, and Merck pharmaceutical companies, as well as a major investment from Clinical Care Options. To learn about bringing inPractice Africa to your country or project, email info@inpracticeafrica.com.