WiRED Team Reports from Armenia
BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW AND BERNICE BORN
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Third Consultative Meeting attendees of the Armenian Centers for Health Education of Wired International.
his June WiRED International Director Gary Selnow, Ph.D., and WiRED Armenia Director Sebouh Baghdoyan spent a busy week visiting facilities and attending meetings in Armenia.
Today, poverty and the lack of reliable medical information are creating serious healthcare concerns for the people of Armenia. WiRED’s work, which started there in 2012, is to develop a strong and effective program which will provide communities in this post-Soviet state with accurate, reliable and effective health education, administrative support and training outreach. WiRED now plans to broaden its program to the medical community under the umbrella of WiRED’s Community Health Education Initiative in Honor of the late U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
During this trip the WiRED team met with representatives from United Nations groups such as UNAIDS and UNICEF to discuss WiRED’s collection of health programs, including its training on maternal and child health and its program on the use of echocardiograms to detect rheumatic heart disease. WiRED also met with physicians and staff at the Scientific Medical Library of Armenia. Their discussions included consideration of a Continuing Medical Education (CME) program for doctors throughout Armenia. Medical professionals there need content and a tracking system to demonstrate and record course completion, as each doctor earns CME credits. WiRED is now developing a long-term program to provide an online CME curriculum, with medical content, scoring and credit-tracking.
WiRED in Armenia
Since 2012 WiRED has worked in Armenia to provide programs that allow doctors, healthcare workers and community members access to critical education to combat health issues relevant to Armenia’s underserved people. Health learning events, employing WiRED’s training modules, have been sponsored by WiRED Armenia, its close partner on many critical community education projects. Today, poverty and the lack of reliable medical information are creating a healthcare crisis for the people of this Eurasian country. For information on WiRED’s work in Armenia, go to the WiRED International – Armenia Facebook page.
Dr. Selnow and Mr. Baghdoyan attended the Third Consultative Meeting of the Armenian Centres for Health Education of Wired International. The two also conducted presentations with officials and WiRED-Armenia staff. A physician there plans to involve a local TV station that would carry training sessions live. The programs would allow call-in questions and comments to involve ever larger segments of the population. Such a forum would cover general health topics, such as dental hygiene, sanitation and treatment for common colds. It would be especially important during times of health threats such as influenza, polio and Zika, where prevention and citizen preparedness are essential.
Group attending briefing at the Vanadzor Medical Center.
WiRED’s Learning Center now offers 12 modules in Armenian on topics such as diabetes, high blood pressure, dental hygiene, smoking cessation, polio and general anatomy. Recognizing the need to boost and increase the number of modules in Armenian, and working closely with local partners, WiRED plans to release 18 Express modules, to address key health issues of special concern to Armenians. During the trip the WiRED team asked meeting participants to suggest other modules that need to be urgently translated.
Dr. Selnow said, “I find the WiRED-Armenia partnership to be personally and professionally rewarding. Many Armenians contribute their time and talents in a very active program that provides valuable health education to populations throughout the country. We at WiRED are enthusiastic about this partnership.”
Sebouh Baghdoyan
Sebouh Baghdoyan is an experienced international expert with more than 40 years of professional practice with international and non-governmental organizations (e.g., UN, EU, EC, OSCE, IIASA) in the fields of project design and management.
Since 2007 Mr. Baghdoyan has been serving as an advisor and consultant to a number of governmental and non-governmental institutions, organizations and companies, mainly in Armenia, Austria, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, the USA and Uzbekistan. Mr. Baghdoyan has been working as country manager for WiRED Armenia since 2012 and today coordinates all country activities, including partner relations, training and delivery of health education programs.
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