JHPIEGO TrainerNews™ |
Centers of Excellence to be Established
in Ecuador
(May 2001)
In Ecuador, JHPIEGO is collaborating with the Ministry of Public Health to implement Centers of Excellence in Family Planning and Reproductive Health. The Centers will become national models providing the highest quality family planning and reproductive health services, updating the knowledge of medical professionals and students via Technology-Assisted Learning Centers (TALCs) and using anatomic models to improve and humanize hands-on instruction. The Centers will emphasize warm and personalized attention, confidentiality, equity and respect for clients, and teamwork and ethical conduct among staff members.
The Family Planning and Reproductive Health Unit of Hospital Pablo Arturo Suárez in Quito opened on 19 April 2001. The Unit offers its clients counseling and guidance, infertility treatment, gynecological cancer screening, cervical pathology and colposcopy services, detection and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and postabortion care. It may eventually integrate services such as laparoscopy, voluntary surgical sterilization and cryotherapy. The on-site TALC will implement a cost-recovery scheme to promote sustainability, and will allow staff and students to access the Internet regularly to update their medical knowledge.
Not only is the Unit well on its way to becoming a Center of Excellence for national training, it has the potential to become a regional training resource for the entire Latin American region. The new unit, including the TALC, was made possible by USAID funding and the leadership of hospital management, the Obstetrics and Gynecology department and JHPIEGO. Other partners included the United Nations Population Fund and the Pan American Health Organization.