Education and Training

Using Village Health Teams for Effective Ultrasound Education in Rural Uganda

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Abstract

Maternal and child health conditions, many of which can be detected by ultrasound, represent the highest burden of disease in Uganda. Imaging the World (ITW) is a not-for-profit organization which integrates high quality, affordable ultrasound services into rural health facilities. Of all the challenges faced with implementation of ITW programs in Uganda, lack of sensitization to ultrasound represented the greatest barrier. The Village Health Team (VHT) is an existing public health “train the trainer” model sponsored by the Uganda Ministry of Health which provides public health training to community volunteers. Trained VHT members were recruited to help with ultrasound community outreach and education. These VHT members were successful in achieving dramatic community acceptance and increased utilization of ultrasound services in rural communities. This has led to significant contributions in improving population health in low-resource settings.

Keywords: Village Health Team, train the trainer, sensitization, ultrasound, Uganda

How to Cite:

Ali, N. S., Ebert, S. A., Njeri, A., Ssembatya, R., Collins, O., Shadrack, P., Allan, A., Amatsiko, M., Matovu, A., Streeter, M. H. & DeStigter, K. K., (2015) “Using Village Health Teams for Effective Ultrasound Education in Rural Uganda”, Journal of Global Radiology 1(2): 4. doi: https://doi.org/10.7191/jgr.2015.1017

Rights: © 2015 the Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).