About the Conference

Individual health workers are at the forefront of the response to COVID-19 and under almost unprecedented strain. As the pandemic passes from one continent to the other, affecting all in turn, how can health workers best support each other across borders? Drawing on THET’s long experience of fostering health partnership, this day-long online conference, organised in partnership with the ESTHER Alliance and Medics Academy and with speakers from WHO, will explore the options open to individual health workers and the institutions they are part of to express solidarity at a time of COVID-19.

The virtual conference will be held on Saturday 25th April from 9:30am GMT till 2:30pm GMT (10:30am CET - 15:30 CET).

Enrolment in this conference page will give you access to the conference, and you will be added to the following mailing lists which you can opt out of at any time:

  • Medics.Academy mailing lists - including the virtual conference mailing list
  • THET mailing list


Enrolment is taken as consenting into providing your name and email address to both Medics.Academy and THET. Medics.Academy continues to be the data controller as per the Medics.Academy terms and conditions.

About the Hosts

Organisation: THET

The Tropical Health Education Trust

Today, one billion people will never see a qualified health worker in their lives.THET works to create a world where everyone, everywhere, has access to quality healthcare. We achieve this by training and educating health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in partnership with volunteers from across the UK health community. Founded in 1988 by Professor Sir Eldryd Parry, we are the only UK Charity with this focus.We are best-known for our Health Partnership approach. Health Partnerships are a model for improving health services based on the idea of linking hospitals and clinics in the UK with their counterparts overseas.Over the past nine years THET has partnered with over 130 NHS Trusts, Royal Colleges and academic institutions. We work closely with the British government, and are an organisation in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO).In the past 30 years, THET has evolved from a small family-run NGO to a larger entity, with six offices across Africa and Asia, and a range of projects spanning from community health to biomedical engineering.THET is still driven by our founder’s original vision and principles: that our work should be responsive to national and local needs acknowledging that if there is mutual trust and a willingness on both sides to learn from each other, then good work will happen. This is the philosophy that THET is built on and one that we will continue to follow as we move forward.

Medics Academy

We empower health professionals across the globe through innovative education and continued professional development.We are driving a digital transformation of professional healthcare training and development and aim to make it accessible to those across the globe and most in need. We believe this platform can improve care and save lives.Our team of doctors, engineers, artists and film-makers are creating an engaging platform to deliver the highest quality education available in the industry.

Conference Agenda

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Introduction

    • About THET

    • Reminders of previous THET and Medics.Academy Content - Setting the Context

    • Joining Instructions

    • Join the Virtual Coffee Space

    • Global Health content available on Medics.Academy
  • 2

    Partnerships in a time of COVID19 - The Conference - Catch up

    • The Speakers

    • Dr Edward Kelley - WHO - Director of the Department of Integrated Health Services

    • Dr Edward Kelley from the WHO - Slides

    • Messages from the frontline - Dorcas Gwata

    • Messages from the frontline - Sa Sheinn

    • Messages from the frontline - Mark Honigsbaum

    • Resources from Partnerships in time of Covid-19
  • 3

    Selected Pre-Conference Reading from THET

    • THET Pre-Conference Reading

    • How Pandemics Spread (Youtube video by one of our speakers Mark Honingsbaum [pre-recorded] on Ted-Ed)

    • COVID-19: protecting health-care workers (Lancet)
  • 4

    The Conference Catch-Up

    • The Agenda

    • Welcome - Lord Nigel Crisp and Ben Simms

    • Keynote Address - Dr Monica Musenero

    • Keynote Address - Dominic Farell - DfID - UK Government

    • Keynote Address - Prof Dr Julia Del Amo - EPICOS: Studying the Impact on Healthcare Workers in Spain

    • Striking the Balance: COVID-19 & the maintenance of quality essential health services - Dr Edward Kelley - World Health Organisation

    • Perspectives from the frontline - panel

    • Reflections from across the globe - Panel Discussion

    • Personal messages - Dr Mark Honigsbaum

    • Personal messages - Sa Sheinn Nurse

    • Health Partnerships in a Time of COVID - The experience of a partnership between Liberia and Japan - Prof Loichi Izumikawa

    • COVID-19, Surely not MY partnership - Dr Peter Harrington

    • Addis Ababa - Halle collaboration - opportunities and challenges in 2020 - Prof Eva Kandelhardt

    • Funding an era of COVID- 19 - Richard Skone James

    • Mobilising health workers and CSOs into a transnational global advocacy initiative - Amanda Banda

    • Learning and research agenda from frugal innovation for COVID19 response - Dr Mattew Harris

    • Fast and frugal innovations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

    • Q&A Amanda Banda and Peter Harrington

    • Personal Messages - Dorcas Gwata - Writing one global story

    • Priorities for Action - Anup Bastola

    • Conference reflections - Dr Shams Syed - World Health Organisation

    • COVID-19 in an African small town - the reality on the ground - Dr Sarah Urassa

    • Reflections on the conference - Dr David Weakliam

    • Reflections and Next Steps - QnA

    • Concluding remarks - Professor Judith Ellis and Ben Simms

    • Feedback - What did you think of the conference?

  • 5

    Improving Paediatric Training in Africa - Jo Wilmhurst

    • 1. Introduction

    • 2. How Should We Provide Training?

    • 3. The Challenges in Training

    • 4. Additional Support

    • 5. Forming Partnership

    • 6. Transition and Translation of Knowledge

    • 7. Progress of the Trainee

    • 8. Post-Training Engagement and Relationship

    • 9. The Hub of Support

    • 10. How Do We Measure Impact?

    • 11. The Training Family

    • 12. Conclusion
  • 6

    Getting to Zero: a Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Outbreak - Oliver Johnson

    • Introduction

    • The book

    • The journey

    • The ebola outbreak

    • The shift

    • Dark times

    • Management and co-ordination

    • Lessons learnt

    • How we built for the future

    • The importance of leadership

    • Conclusion
  • 7

    Tackling the Global Competition for Health Workers - Ged Byrne

    • Introduction

    • The NHS currently

    • The NHS as an educator

    • Workforce recruitment- the ethical dilemma

    • Global learning programme

    • Global Health Exchange

    • Conclusion