Wednesday 31 January 2018

Malaria Matters - a little history

This is not the first time I've blogged about Malaria Matters!  This is an e learning course which will take you through the Guidelines for malaria prevention in travellers from the UK, published by Public Health England on an annual basis.

In 2008 I was invited by GSK to write the material for this course and work alongside a medical education company to produce an interactive modular course based on the guidelines.  The opportunity was both exciting and daunting at times, but resulted in a CD Rom which was initially launched in 2009 and given out to customers purely as an educational tool and was used for a good two years.  However sadly updating it with new guidelines was a large task and it was decided no longer possible to produce by the company.  However, they very generously allowed me to take over its ownership from that point.

In 2014 I started to develop the course material working with an e learning designer to put the course onto an e learning platform.  It was at this time I won the Triennial Scholarship (of £2000) from the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the award helped towards production costs.  For more details of my report see here

Since that time I have developed my own e learning skills such that I've been able to update the work each year in line with the latest guidelines document.  I undertake this work gladly in my own time and receive no income for such.  However to host it on a platform which produces a certificate comes at quite a significant cost and I was keen to continue providing the learning free of charge.

Therefore in 2018 I've moved the course onto a new platform which is in fact a lot easier to use, has no time limit in which to undertake the work and means people can undertake the learning on mobile phones and tablets as well as a computer - the choice is yours!  A certificate of completion also doesn't really prove you learnt anything, so today a written reflection of the learning and how it will change or improve your practice is of far greater worth for your CPD.

I therefore hope people will continue to undertake and learn from Malaria Matters and enjoy the experience.


Click on the image below to access the course directly.  

To see the page on my website for more information see here