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Global Women’s Medicine
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It is with great pleasure when I confirm to you that I received the package that contains the memory stick safely. I will install it on the places which I hope are appropriate and where people most benefit out of this material. I will update you about the places and the contact persons there in the near future.
Once again I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute.
27/03/2015
I can happily confirm that I have received the flash memory with the CD"s. I have copied it in to my lap top and it is functional on its own and also from my lap top. Thank you very much.
Now it is my turn to give it around to medical schools and other institutes, and will let you know.
27/03/2015
As usual I am happy to promote the Global Library of Women's Medicine and currently I am sharing the materials and presenting the contents and purpose of the website for Maternity Foundation task force members who came from Somali region, Gode and Jigjiga, and West Oromia, Gimbie. The task force is composed of two teams, 1, clinical (health professionals who are working at the health facility& teachers who are teaching in midwifery school) 2, the community team who are working at the community level. Most of them are working in remote areas where there is limited access to internet connection.
Will share with you when I will have more updates.
Thank you so much
14/05/2015
I would like to thank you for your strong effort in providing me and our faculty the offline GLOWM flash disc; I have given the flash disc and the video to all of our faculty members and 35 residents! I personally found it to be most useful, used one of the videos to train nurses on non pneumatic anti shock garment use on postpartum hemorrhage management! I am also using it as a reference to write my proposals and prepare my lectures!The thing is we currently don't have desktops for all medical students' use, but we are planning to have few desktops from one organization so that all of our medical students can have access any time they want!
I think we can use the videos to teach our society if we can translate it to local languages!
24/08/2015
Great respect for you and your organization that I got the most valuable library resource you sent by DHL. I hope it will aid many heath professionals in improving the life of many women
27/03/2015
Many thanks for GLOWM, which is indeed of immense help where ever it has been installed so far.
From your experience how useful do you feel the resources provided by The Global Library of Women's Medicine have been in your locality? Do they actually make a worthwhile difference or are they of only marginal relevance and value?
The GLOWM is very popular and useful, especially as a resource for post-graduate students.
What additional resources – or other actions – would, in your opinion, help to improve medical education and skills in a practical way?
Recent advances and current guidelines for management, power point lectures and operative videos will be helpful.
How useful would it be if women themselves understood a little more about the basic facts related to pregnancy and childbirth – and can you envisage any practical options for providing them with this?
Information on normal pregnancy and its course, the common and serious pregnancy complications, such as bleeding during and after pregnancy, complications of pre-eclampsia, etc; can be section on the website as 'patient information'. There should be an option of translating it to local/regional language (e.g. google translation)
It is my pleasure to work for GLOWM, thank you.
24/08/2015
I am glad to inform you that the GLOWM memory stick along with the display posters and instruction were delivered today at my home address.
Thank you so much.
As an ambassador for GLOWM, I am committed to expand the library where it will be a very important source of information.
I am very thankful for giving me the opportunity to do this wonderful work .
27/03/2015
Thank you very much for this gift of the year. It will go along way in helping me manage my patients.
Thanks and GOD BLESS
27/03/2015
The following are centres I have distributed the GLOWM resource to:
1. Pwani University College In Kilifi
Contact person: Michael S. Wanyonyi.
Ag. Librarian
2. Dr. Willey Kibet Kikwai
Consultant Obstetrician/Gynecologist and HOD
Coast Provincial General Hospital
Mombasa
3. Naheed Manjothi, PMP
ICT Projects Manager
Aga Khan Hospital, Mombasa
For the latter I can be the alternate contact person as I also work in the same hospital. I hope this suffices for now. Will try and get more instituitions on board. Thanks again for letting me be your ambassador. Attached please find the dedicated computer in the maternity ward of site 2 and the team from pwani university when they received me.
20/05/2015
Thank you ever so much for this noble mission to keep health workers informed on the latest trends in medical practice. You have made it easy for low resourced countries with unreliable Internet to learn and and update their knowledge and especially in the practice of Obs/Gyn. God bless you abundantly for your vision.
17/5/2015
I am pleased to inform you that as a GLOWM ambassador I have to-date downloaded the resource to the following Major hospitals in Kenya
1. AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL – Email: akuh.nairobi@aku.edu att obs/gyn
2. THE MATER HOSPITAL – Email: inform@materkenya.com
3. MERIDIAN EQUATOR HOSPITAL – Email: infor@meridianequator.com
27/03/2015
I hereby report on my progress:
I have made phone contacts with the department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in the following institutions – University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, and Anambra State University Teaching Hospital. Most of the contacts are certain their departments do not have dedicated departmental e-library with enough disc space for the download, but promised to make further inquiry and give me feedback. My contact from Anambra State University Teaching Hospital, Awka, Nigeria, suggested that I could get the material downloaded into Prof. Kenneth Dike e-Library in Awka and that this will serve Anambra State University Teaching Hospital, Awka and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, and the other health institutions in Anambra State. Thus, I visited Prof. Kenneth Dike Library Awka, today, introduced GLOWM to the Chief Librarian, Udeze Nkechi S., and was permitted to download the material in the memory stick into two computers. I also gave her one GLOWM poster and one information sheet for the Library. She promised to install the Global Library into their data base so as to make it visible in all the computers (more than hundred) connected to it, and to make photocopies of the poster and place in all the branches of the library (with computers) in Anambra State. Done this way, many more health practitioners, including those in teaching hospitals (Anambra State University Teaching Hospital, Awka and Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital), general hospitals and even private hospitals, and students, will be able to access the material. I have discussed with my contact in Anambra State University Teaching Hospital, Awka to pass on the information to their doctors and students.
27/03/2015
The Memory Stick and DVDs have added another innovation in the method and quality of learning for our residents and midwifery students.
20/05/2015
I have installed the GLOWM educational tool at 2 places in Bauchi North Eastern Nigeria. These are:
I also intend to install it in two other Medical schools. One at the University of JOS Medical School, in Plateau state and University of Maiduguri or Gombe state medical school library hopefully before the end of the year, this is largely due to the instability around this areas.
27/03/2015
Thank you so much for the stick and other materials which I received safely. I have since introduced the stick and downloaded it in the databases of 10 hospitals in Nigeria. I will forward the addresses and contact details of the hospitals to you very soon. I will now request them to give me feedback on their use of the stick, so I can advice you appropriately.
20/05/2015
Today, I was able to make formal presentation of the USB to a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Dean of Clinical Sciences here in our University. The resource was well received by the both of them and the Dean agreed that the material can be introduced to our Medical Students here in Ife. I am making arrangements for a formal introduction for the students.
I have also sent correspondences to hospital in Osogbo, Akure and Ado-Ekiti and I am awaiting institutional response for convenient dates for presentation to the facilities contacted. I am contacting far more facilities than I proposed in my earlier mail and I am very hopeful for favourable response from them.
Based on informal discussions with the OBGYN Professor and the Dean, I am thinking to have individuals or institutional enrolment for the resource. For example, the loading of the stick on College library computers will be taken as institutional enrolment while medical students, residents, etc, who download on personal computers will be regarded as individual enrolees. Data will be captured from both categories and in this regard, I have designed an enrolment form that is hereby attached. I thinking that it more appropriate to share the four materials that I have developed for the promotion with you for your input comments and suggestions.
We have noted that only two of the videos would play on flat screen TVs and even then only short segments. I however cannot explain why this is so.
27/03/2015
The material on Ebola is very detailed and appropriate. Will give further information about my experimentation with the DVDs soon.
I have downloaded the GLOWM library in the medical libraries of Olabisi Onabanjo University Medical School and Benjamin S. Carson Medical School. I hope to travel to more medical schools since I have only one stick with me. If there were spare sticks I would have posted to each of the 30 medical school medical librarians and follow up the download and use. In the main while, I am establishing contact with all of them to facilitate the achievement of the set goal of getting each medical school library having and using the resource material.
23/5/2015
I have been able to upload the contents of the data stick onto computers in 4 hospitals in Nigeria, 2 tertiary hospitals, 1 secondary hospital and 2 primary health care centres that offer ANC, labour and delivery services. The hospitals are as follows:
1. The University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. I introduced the memory stick to doctors within the Obstetric and Gynaecology Department, uploaded it onto the departmental computer and also uploaded it onto the laptops of individual resident doctors within the hospital.
2. Lagos University Teaching Hospital. I introduced it to the Chief Resident and resident doctors on call on the day I visited the hospital. I was able to upload it onto individual laptops of the resident doctors present.
3. Kwara Stae Specialist Hospital, SOBI, Kwara State. I was able to upload it unto the personal computers of the Consultant Obstetricians in the hospital.
4. At a Training in Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care which took place in Ilorin, I was able to upload the stick unto the personal computers of Doctors who attended the training and work in primary health care centres within the state.
Everyone appreciated the contents of the stick and commended the great initaitive of the GLOWM in making it available on memory sticks for low resource countries who may not have access to the internet. I also suggested that they should look at the online resorce periodically so as to be able to benefit from any additional resources in the library.
I think the MOTHER initiative is a very brilliant concept which will further help to improve maternal and newborn health care in our country.
Translating the film into major Nigerian languages is also very commedable. May I suggest that these films may be played during mothercraft classes at hospitals and health centers offering antenatal care services in Nigeria? These hospitals and health centres usually offer health talks to pregnant women just before the commencement of each clinic. Some women however come to the clinics late and as such donot benefit from these talks. If the videos are played on the television set in the waiting room continuosly during the clinic, it will enable women who missed the health talk to receive vital eduction as well reinforce these messages.
I apppreciate the opportunity given to me to participate in this laudable project.
24/08/2015
I wish to inform you that I have received the GLOWM memory stick. After the holidays, I will definitely upload it unto computers at hospitals here and keep you informed.
27/03/2015
Sadly, while it was being downloaded at the third hospital (Kaduna polytechnic) it was inadvertently tampered with and the data on the flash lost!
I feel very unhappy to have lost such a valuable resource and request that it should please be replaced. I do not mind if I have to pay a fee for the replacement.
I sincerely hope that you consider this request.
27/03/2015
1. The resources provided by the GLOWM are very, very useful in my locality. Both trainers and trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology find in the Library a ready source of accurate, up-to-date information on women's health. We trainers use it to update our lectures and training resources and refer trainees to the same library for further learning. indeed one of my residents said, 'After going through the GLOWM, I do not need any further training on Obstetric ultrasound'.
2. Electronic resources such as GLOWM is a wonderful idea but a good number of trainees in resource-poor countries lack personal computers and the use of computers in the libraries of teaching institutions is hampered by erratic supply of electricity. Practical demonstration therefore remains a veritable method of imparting knowledge and transferring skills. Physical and financial support to trainers to organize practical sessions of skills transfer to groups of trainees may help to improve skills development in resource-poor countries. If possible, personal computers could be provided to indigent trainees.
3. It is absolutely important for women to understand the basic facts related to pregnancy and delivery. I strongly believe that such knowledge would reduce pregnancy-related mortality and morbidity in developing countries especially if such messages are taken to the rural areas in local language. Some organizations such as The DLC Rural Health Foundation have been doing this with lots of success. In my opinion, partnering with or supporting such Community-based Organizations would help to bring the facts related to pregnancy and childbirth to the knowledge of the rural woman in developing countries
24/08/2015
This is to inform you that the GLOWM memory stick arrived and was received in good condition on the 19th of December 2014. After the Christmas and new year festivities I will proceed with installing it's content in the computers of as many tertiary heath institutions and medical schools as possible.
Thank you and best regards
27/03/2015
I have been able to circulate the Memory Stick among my colleagues and resident doctors at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, dept of O/G and the Medical library of the same institution.
Thank you for the oppotunity to be a Glowm Ambassador.
20/05/2015
I will ensure that it reaches as many health professionals as possible and you will get the necessary feedback as time goes on. Thank you very much for your kind gesture in ensuring that this great medical resource get to us in the resource-poor countries. We will put it the greatest possible use.
Thank you very much.
27/03/2015
The resources provided in the GLOWM memory stick have been of great help to so many that do not have access to internet facility. it is accessible anywhere any time and at no cost.
I am presently getting request from individuals to download the resources on their personal computers and have done so to many.
Many are quoting from the resources during presentations and discussions.
Practical ways that can improve medical education and skills in my opinion should include more use of video demonstration and simulations, therefore simulators should be provided in institutions for teaching.
One of the ways that can be used to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality is by involving the women themselves and educating them on issues that relate to their own health. This can be carried out in the antenatal clinic whereby short educating videos using the newly developed Global library animated videos can be played after the routine health talk.
02/09/2015
I am happy to inform you that I have downloaded the resources in the GLOWM memory stick to the following-
All doctors working at the national Obstetric Fistula Centre, Katsina
The School of Midwifery library, Katsina
All resident doctors working in the department of Obstetric and Gynaecology, FMC, Katsina
Residents and Consultants of the Department of Obstetric and Gynaecology, Usmanu Danfodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto
Few nurses working the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Katsina
I will keep you informed of my further progress
25/05/2015
This is to inform you that the memory stick has arrived and I will do as promised.
27/03/2015
I am pleased to give you this update on my efforts at disseminating the GLOWM Memory Stick and DVD Video to as many clinicians as could derive benefits from their use.
Following receipt of the resources, they were replicated and an acknowledgement form was developed. Heads of departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in training institutions were issued with a set of the materials and requested to: disseminate same to all doctors in their vicinity; provide the DVD for use in their clinics; and requested to complete the acknowledgement form.
27/03/2015
This is to confirm that the DHL parcel with the ' Memory Stick' arrived this afternoon.
I also confirm that we will give copies to as many people as we can as there are several computers accessible to students and also to medical doctors.
27/03/2015
Yes the memory stick arrived well and I have been downloading to relevant institutions. I will make a point that people do write the email to acknowledge the download whilst I'm still with them.
20/05/2015
The impact of the knowledge that there is a resource on Women’s Medicine is beyond comprehension for those who are not used to being in an area where there is no access to support and clinical resources! The health workers and managers are over the moon at the reception of the GLOWM, especially as there is no internet or sometimes there is internet of inadequate speed.
Only one of the 27 hospitals in the province of Mpumalanga, South Africa has a library or resource center with materials for doctors. That hospital acquired this because it is a center for medical student training in collaboration with the University of Pretoria, which is 100 kms away. All the other hospitals and all the community health centers do not have access to information.
The center for nurse education are also very poorly equipped and resourced, with the result that upon graduation the nurses and midwives do not have current knowledge on how to manage women in need.
The GLOWM has been downloaded to the following areas:
Ermelo Regional Hospital – maternity ward and the operational manager
Evander Regional Training Centre
Evander District Hospital
District Senior Medical Officer, Dr G Goosen
Shongwe District Hospital
Tonga District Hospital
02/09/2015
Greetings and thank you very much for the memory stick you sent through to us.
The Library is a very welcome resource and I have already installed it in a number of places, since internet is not reliable in many of the public hospitals in the rural areas.
The following places (and people) have the library on their computers:
After installation into the Regional Training Centre, I couldn't download anymore. The GLOWM folder although indicating that it is there with the amount of information >8GB, there is nothing that shows. I had followed all the steps that were necessary. Maybe it got infected I am not sure. I shall contact our IT section to see if the ailment is curable.
People are very keen to have the resource – well beyond our province, as there are other provinces that are as rural as ours, with no resources to assist the doctors, nurses and midwives responsible for women's and children's health.
Unfortunately my laptop (Apple) cannot read the memory stick as the information is accessible through Windows.
Thank you very much for the resource. If I have problems I shall let you know.
06/08/2015
The GLOWM is an excellent resource which is extremely useful and proofed to be very popular. I had very positive comments about its contents and its ease of use from our trainees at Soba University Hospital and other users.
The GLOWM library is now downloaded at many hospitals in Khartoum including:
Soba University Hospital
Omdurman maternity Hospital
Omdurman New Hospital
University of Medical science and technology- postgraduate library
Saad Abulela Teaching Hospital
Academy Charity Teaching Hospital
Alahfad University Library
We are in the process of taking the GLOWM to other cities in Sudan including Hasaheisa Hospital, Algeinana Teaching Hospital and Elobied Teaching Hospital.
I have copied Dr Atif Fazari (Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist) into this email as he has been actively involved in spreading this library into many institutions and will facilitate its use in other cities as well. My thanks are extended to him as well.
We will update you with any feedback we receive and with any new institutions included.
25/05/2015
I wish to inform you that I have installed the information at Muhimbili national hospital library and Muhimbili university library. These are the largest learning institutions in Tanzania. I am planning to travel upcountry for the same purpose. As of now let me gather the feedback and will come back to you
20/05/2015
We will be incorporating material from this into our teaching program when we get to the Women’s health/obstetrics section of our curriculum later in the year.
We don’t have a library as such – we teach at a clinic on the Thai Burma border. But will be making it available to our students, and to other teaching programs within our organisation, as well as some allied training organisations. Myself and my wife Alison teach in and coordinate the Shan Medic training program for Partners Relief and Development which is an NGO which focuses on Burma/Myanmar.
Once again thanks for your help with getting this to us. It will be a very useful tool.
24/05/2015
Thanks for your mail. I have received the memory stick. I intend to start installing them soon after the holiday season. I will inform you of our progress.
27/03/2015
GLOWM is a useful tool in our daily practice as students. The offline option is a fast reference and we can access all our reading materials and books at no cost. It is helping us improve our knowledge from an easy to understand and updated source.
I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have been looking for me to download the Memory Stick. Also, I have been writing my contacts on the poster. The website is much better known than i expected it to be.
I will soon send the details of the areas that I visit.
20/05/2015
With great pleasure, the whole team of Nsambya Hospital and Uganda Matyrs University Postgraduate School, would wish to inform you that, we have received the GLOWM memory stick and are already making use of this programme. I will personally give you a report of further diseminations.
I have been to 10 health centres where we have been able to download GLOWM successfully.
27/03/2015
Agripa Simwanza
I work at an underground clinic and my job entails attending to sick miners or those involved in occupational accidents advising miners on healthy wellbeing and giving them health information to effect behavioral change; thus discussing issues like: 1. Dangers of Alcohol and drugs on our bodies. 2. Safe motherhood and encouraging miners to escort their spouses and children when they go to health facilities seeking treatment for any ailment. 3. Prevention of HIV, proper use of condoms. 4 Family planning, giving information about different methods available. 5. Accident prevention at workplaces.
Passion for women's health arises from the fact that I am a father of 2 beautifull daughters and I wish to provide for them the best that any dad can for his children.
Working in a resource constrained countries like Zambia, I have seen how disadvantaged women are in terms of access to good and quality health care; it is my desire to contribute in any way possible to better women's health as health women means a health family and ultimately a health national.
From: Dr Gilbert Mukuka, Medical Superintendent, Mopani Copper Mines Plc
We are a 110 bed capacity hospital providing among other services Women's Reproductive health care Services.
Agripa has played a pivotal role in this hospital as far as the support for continuing Medical Education in this hospital is concerned. He has motivated a number of our staff to update their knowledge because of the documents and study materials that he consistently downloads in all our hospital departments. He is one of our staff that are earmarked to receive recognition awards in the area of selfless service to the hospital community this year.
In my opinion he is qualified to be an ambassador of advocacy for safe motherhood.
From: Ngoza Mwimba, registered midwife, Mopani Copper Mines
On seeing the mail you sent to Aripa Simwanza, I have taken it onto myself to acknowledge and appreciate his efforts to download and circulate this information to all concerned staff in our hospital.
I am a registered midwife, but I have continued to learn more about safe motherhood and every information I have received from him has been very helpful in my presentations and day to activities .
From: Mr. Golden Kaisale in charge of the intensive care unit at a mine hospital under Mopani copper mines PLC, Mufulira town in Zambia
I just want to take this juncture to register my profound appreciation to Mr. Agripa Simwanza and to you Mr. David Bloomer for your partnership and collaboration. Myself and a lot of my co-workers have been receiving very useful training materials about Safe motherhood and Reproductive health from Mr A. Simwanza. The information we have been receiving from him have been used for teaching general student nurses, student midwives and nurses who are attached to our hospital from the training schools within and outside the town for mentorship and clinical experience.
Mr. Simwanza has not only shared with us training materials on safe motherhood and reproductive health but also materials from other specialties like Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pharmacology etc. I for one would not hesitate to recommend him to feature on the GLOWM Website.
From: Jenipher Nkaka Yumba working at Malcolm Watson Hospital as a sister in charge of Women health clinic
I wish to recommend your material I have been receiving through Agripa Simwanza.
It has been very helpful.
The presentation is simple and straight to the point.
Demonstrations and audio tapes makes learning and teaching easier.
It gives encouragement to see the challenges other midwives faces and the different kind of obstetric emergencies and their management
From: Grace Kansumba, Midwife Tutor
In response to the request below, I would like to acknowledge the benefit I have received from the materials on safe motherhood. Being a Midwifery Tutor and a Clinical Practioner I have used some of the information to update my classroom notes and I have assisted the midwives to come up with protocols that are essential to emergency care on maternity ward.
Hence I truly thank Agripa who has passed on such valuable information from your Web site.
The following Ambassadors travel frequently to other locations where the internet connection is unreliable and where the GLOWM USB memory stick is particularly useful
I just wanted to say how grateful I am to you for kindly sending me the recent GLOWM pack, USB memory stick & DVDs, as Brian advised.
I haven't had chance to take a good look at the pack yet, but am very familiar with the GLOWM site, & promote it at every given opportunity!
See (& also subscribe to the FIGO Fistula Newsletter if you wish!) – note the reference to GLOWM http://www.figo.org/news/new-figo-fistula-surgery-training-initiative-newsletter-now-available-0014812
In the future, we will certainly be looking at technical resources for Trainee Fistula Surgeons/health teams working on fistula, & it would be great to link back to you at that point if this sounds like a good plan to you.
Many thanks once again!
27/03/2015
I am happy to tell you the memory stick arrived today. I will take it to Nigeria during my next trip.
Thank you for all the help for the Grimard School of Midwifery.
27/03/2015
Thanking for your great concern! These are the places where the GLOWM memory stick is distributed:
– Adama hospital Medical College
– Integrated Emergency Obstetric & Surgery Students
– Students of Medicine (MD)
– Obstetrics & Gynecology postgraduate students.
17/05/2015