Early and mid-career health professionals have participated in a new training course developed by WHO/Europe and its collaborating centers. The course is focused on giving participants the most advanced and up-to-date tools to work on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This unique initiative included the cooperation of more than 10 WHO collaborating centres who came together to develop and deliver the course.
Noncommunicable diseases: in need of more expertise
The 5 major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and mental disorders – have a serious impact on the health of people in the WHO European Region. Taken together, these conditions account for more than 85% of deaths.
“We understand the growing demand and need for capacity-building to tackle NCDs”, says Dr Kremlin Wickramasinghe, Acting Head of the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Office), who developed the training course. “We had to adapt to new circumstances during the current pandemic to meet these requirements.”
“At the same time, the pandemic helped us to make the training course even more innovative and ambitious. Using online tools, we were able to bring together great NCD specialists and young health professionals working in many different countries of the Region – huge appreciation to our WHO collaborating centers for their commitment and contribution.”
During the course, the participants dove into a broad range of topics in the context of the prevention and control of NCDs: surveillance and data, policy measures, evaluation of interventions, as well as the presentation of findings and recommendations to different audiences, including journalists and policy-makers.
Improving skills for the future
The course’s participants have different backgrounds, but all of them benefit from WHO training to improve their set of NCD prevention and control skills.
“Besides my occupation in Lithuania’s health care system, I regularly work with small kids as a health instructor in a kindergarten. So, it is natural for me to be focused more on prevention topics,” explains Agne, a health professional and researcher from Lithuania. “In the current global context where there is so much health-related information and misinformation, this course could help to translate that abundant knowledge into effective action.”
For Claudio, a cancer surgeon from Italy who also collaborates with national media as a writer focused on health and environment, the WHO course is an opportunity to become a stronger professional in both fields. “My articles could be more accurate, and my actions as a doctor would be sharper,” he says. “In the end, I believe in cooperation and networking: meeting other professionals who are dedicated to medicine and the environment are an opportunity to implement my projects and start new ones.”
Elena, another course participant who researches the topic of alcohol and tobacco use for policy guidance in the Russian Federation, sees the WHO training course as “an opportunity to systematize the most up-to-date knowledge on overcoming noncommunicable diseases”.
Learning opportunities for all
The lecturers of the course represent leading health institutions, WHO collaborating centres and partner organizations from the Region.
“You as aspiring professionals await great delivery from the lecturers,” said Dr Wolfgang Ahrens, Deputy Director of the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology, one of the lead authors of the course, during the introductory webinar. “We as the lecturers and organizers of the course want to learn from this experience as well – and hope for your feedback that we can use to improve the teaching process. So, I guess we all have high expectations from each other.”
More training on the way
The WHO NCD free training course for early and mid-career professionals is divided into 9 modules and will last for 2 months. It is a recurring opportunity for young researchers of the Region to update their skills.
The WHO NCD Office will announce the upcoming rounds of the NCD course in early 2022 and continue to update the information to allow more people to take part. If you are interested in receiving future updates, please register using the information below.
For further information on the NCD training courses, please write to Ms Kathrin Hetz (hetzk@who.int)