IMET2000
The International Medical Education Trust (IMET) 2000 works in areas of extreme deprivation, refugee camps and war zones to provide specialised training for psychiatrists, physicians, surgeons, nurses and allied professionals in primary trauma care, notably war wounds and burns, rehabilitation, and the mental health of children and adolescents.
IMET2000 addresses needs in global healthcare by facilitating:
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Lifelong learning and continuous professional development (CPD) for all working in the health sector
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Multidisciplinary teamwork between doctors, nurses, dentists, paramedics, community health workers and allied health professionals
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More care in the community rather than expensive hospitals
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Public health awareness and preventive medicine
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Patient-centred learning
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Improvement in maternal health
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Scholarships for needy under- and post-graduate students
Our work is currently focused in Africa, Palestine, India and Ukraine.
The Need
What We Work For
Good health and education are two of the pillars of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. However, because of a massive threefold increase in the global human population (1.7 billion in 1948 to near 7.2 billion in 2016) and environmental degradation associated with fossil fuel exploitation, climate change, shrinking agriculturally usable land mass, unsustainable ocean misuse and chronic conflict, global health is if anything getting worse for two-thirds of the world population.
Life expectancy in wealthy societies is increasing rapidly but in transitional and economically deprived countries, life expectancy, infant mortality and public health are poor. In terms of healthcare provision, the disparity between wealthy and poor countries is brought into stark relief by a comparison between a country such as Malawi where there are 2 doctors for 100,000 population and the UK which has 230 per 100,000.
This disparity is mirrored too in all professionals working in the Health Sector. Worse still, within nation states, rural areas and outlying districts are often even more poorly served as health workers migrate into urban conurbations. This is particularly problematic in Africa but true also even in Asian giants such as India and China.
When drought, starvation, mass migrations on foot, and refugees from conflict (encouraged by a burgeoning arms trade and flow of weapons from rich to poor nations) are added to this toxic mix, it is not difficult to see why professionals trained at great expense in their native land, emigrate to the USA and Europe to seek their fortune and join the brain drain.
In summary, whilst aid from rich to poor can be useful if targeted at specific health problems and emergency situations, the long term strategy has to be based on sound healthcare education and training foundations in their own country. The Western model of healthcare training is often inappropriate for the needs of the poor.
What We Do
IMET2000 believes that a learning model must be continuously updated and based around the carefully identified needs of individual countries.
We seek to improve education and training right across the board to encourage a truly multidisciplinary approach not centred on hospitals but on family practice clinics.
Finally few seek to address the shortage of healthcare workers in all disciplines by increasing the availability of cost effective distance learning opportunities and sponsoring students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
IMET2000 is still evolving and evaluating different models of healthcare education to address the needs outlined above and is piloting schemes which are tested in real time service provision.