The Welfare of Women
Global Health Programme
Women’s health is widely recognised to be a global priority because women bear the greatest
burden of health issues due to their family orientated role – and in many parts of the world poverty
and crisis conditions often place women at an even greater degree of healthcare inequality. There
is, therefore, an obvious need to lower the rates of maternal mortality/morbidity and to improve
women’s healthcare generally - so the doctors, nurses, midwives and other health professionals who
care for women, sometimes in very challenging and difficult circumstances, deserve support of every
practical kind.
The Welfare of Women global health programme is a completely new initiative by The Global Library
of Women’s Medicine and is an ambitious attempt to try and provide these health professionals with
immediate access to the latest, state-of-the-art, information on women’s health and on the ‘best
practice’ management of relevant clinical conditions.
At the same time the programme also tries to address the main factors that have, in the past,
often limited the effective transmission of such information to those who need it most by using a range of new technologies and approaches
in a carefully integrated manner. In this way it is hoped that this programme may make a small but practical contribution to the work of many
dedicated healthcare professionals around the world.
Our programme has been designed to overcome some widely recognised challenges
Language Multi lingual – 6 languages for key features, with potential for many more
Distribution Using the internet AND mobile phone technologies combined to maximise coverage
Interactivity Offering options for reader interaction – not just passive study
Outreach Global distribution, assisted by local networks and national OBGYN Societies
Adaptability Featuring continuous updating, adaptation and extension
Focus Provided at three separate levels to meet differing needs of readers
This worldwide programme involves three different levels of intervention
For doctors Via the internet (and via memory sticks where internet is still unavailable)
For midwives/nurses Via mobile phone app and the internet
For women Via mobile phone app
Why is this different?
This integrated approach has never been possible before, and has never been attempted before, because it is only with the arrival of the latest
developments in interactive communication plus active liaison with national Societies in over 130 different countries, that this is now feasible to
attempt. The Global Library already has a vast worldwide readership (typically over 4 million visitors from some 170 countries annually) and will
build on this to try and achieve real momentum and impact.
There are 3 separate elements to the programme
- For doctors
– 50 online volumes on women’s medicine (some 500 expert chapters in total) all offering online Assessment, Study Certification and Continuing
Professional Development credits
- For midwives and nurses
– a unique practical guide for managing most of the conditions that may arise during a woman’s life course
- For Community Health Workers – and Women themselves
– simple health information and animations, highly illustrated – and with voice commentary for those who cannot read
For doctors
An entirely new, expert guide to women’s medicine in 50 Volumes – with interactive options for embedding learning and certifying study completion.
For Midwives and Nurses
- 95 separate “Companions to Management” guides covering a woman’s life course
- 10 Obstetric Emergencies algorithms
- 12 Skills videos
- Plus: optional record-keeping and data collection facilities
For Community Health Workers – and for Women themselves
- 48 highly illustrated animations on key health issues, accompanied by voice commentary for those who have reading difficulties
- Presented in 4 alternative ethnicities (Caucasian, African, Asian and Oriental)
- Plus more detailed guidance on each as text-only option for those who want further information
Global usage
- All national OBGYN Societies will be offered the opportunity of managing and controlling the WoW app
in their own country – and to translate all its resources
- This local control will enable the national Society to ensure the effective distribution of the app, by working
directly with their local health services and women’s health leaders
- Local control will also enable them to add locally relevant resources to the app – and to translate all its text into
any local language
- The app has been specially designed to make these processes both possible and relatively simple,
without requiring any special digital skills
Providing all the material in an unlimited range of different languages
- For doctors – all the 500 Practice Recommendations in the 50 Volume series will be provided initially in 6
different languages. Later it is hoped that it may even be possible to translate the full chapter texts into these
languages
- For nurses, midwives, community health workers and women – in addition to the six different languages – the
specially formatted programming allows for all their resources to be translated locally into an unlimited number
of additional languages
Responding with flexibility
- This Welfare of Women programme is ongoing and flexible – so adaptations may continue to be made in
response to experience and feedback. The Global Library of Women’s Medicine would greatly welcome any
suggestions or proposals that might help to improve its coverage or enhance its effectiveness.