Submitted
Equitable Health Systems

Virtual Medical Training in Lodja, DR-Congo

Team Leader
Margaret Young
Solution Overview & Team Lead Details
Our Organization
Congo Rising Corporation
What is the name of your solution?
Virtual Medical Training in Lodja, DR-Congo
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Using digital technology of the RACHEL and Raspberry Pi, we will restore the medical track of USTL's academic programs.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?

In November, 2021, all universities in the DR-Congo with pre-med programs were told that unless they could certify the qualifications of their faculty and unless they had a functioning clinic, their programs were suspended. This suspension affected thousands of students throughout the country, who were told to find another place to study. Lodja is very poor, so only a handful of students at the University of Science and Technology had enough money to re-locate. Those left behind simply lost the three years of study they had  finished, and their career options were drastically reduced. Those who were able to re-locate did so, but left their families in Lodja.

The university already had a problem with getting qualified professors to teach there, inasmuch as it's in an isolated region accessible from other areas only via plane or very long trips by truck and barge. When funds allowed, USTL would fly designated professors from Kinshasa to Lodja and house them for a week while they taught classes. However. available funds were contingent on paid tuition, and only a fraction of students in Lodja can afford the full tuition of $300./year. Students pay what they can, but the expense of transporting professors has become prohibitive. Doctors from regional hospitals give lectures, but qualified faculty are rare. The cost of each roundtrip flight for the professors is $800., which is not currently affordable for the university.

Additionally, the teaching style is antiquated. Professors write material on the board and students copy. Sometimes, handouts are made available for test preparation. However, once the professors leave, they are not accessible for consultation, so students can only review their notes and the handouts. 

The situation is critical at the moment because the pre-med program has been summarily cancelled. Though the university had already begun building a medical clinic on its ample acreage, the problems inherent in transporting professors and having students receive excellent instruction is too much to surmount without an innovation.

The suspension of the pre-med track at USTL happened in October, 2021, with a clarifying statement added by the government in November 2021. 150 students were abruptly stripped of the credits they had already earned unless they could afford to attend another university with a medical track in place.

Furthermore, special medical procedures in Lodja require special training, which has heretofore been done by transporting a doctor with such training from another area, such as Goma. Fistula repair, for example, is needed in Lodja and surrounding areas, but doctors require special training. In the past, doctors have been flown to Goma for training, or a doctor from Goma has been flown to Lodja to perform the operations. A Swiss organization has augmented training in a specialized hospital, but the poorest of the area still go to the General Hospital for help. One doctor at the Lodja General Hospital received training in Goma, but he has since left Lodja to pursue wider choices in Kinshasa. Because of its isolation, Lodja and its surrounding villages provide narrow options. 


What is your solution?

We already have two RACHEL units in Lodja and will purchase four more to accommodate all students. We will also supply these students with either Chromebooks or mobile devices which will connect them to the RACHEL to access medical training. The rechargeable RACHEL is a contained hotspot which can go into any area, regardless of electrical connection. In addition, our partner organization, Community Development Network is ready to pilot  5G CDN servers which have the RACHEL software on the Raspberry Pi quad core computer (It's smaller, faster and more durable in African settings). (This version has an aluminum case without a moveable disk so it's stronger and safer with a changeable micro SD which can be easily updated without needing to sync with the internet.)

Bimpa Production will film lectures and lab demonstrations with certified medical professors in Kinshasa, DRC, which will be uploaded to the RACHELs so that students in any rural area may participate in medical training. Note that medical training is already available online in English from places like Harvard University (https://onlinelearning.hms.har...). 

A student will connect to the curriculum using the RACHEL hub (to be supplemented by the previously described technology). Each RACHEL makes curriculum available to as many as fifty students at a time, which meets the needs of the typical classroom at the university. Laboratory demonstrations will also be filmed, and students will be required to participate in virtual AND in-person laboratory demonstrations. 

Furthermore, specialized training which has heretofore required costly trips either for doctors or students may be done via film and practiced in the clinic. The films may, of course, be replayed as often as needed until the student is certain of understanding. This option  improves the teaching model currently used.

Evaluations will be done according to accepted systems currently in place in the DRC, and may be administered by local doctors.

In this way, we bring a rural area in the DR-Congo into the twenty-first century and allow the progress of digital education to reach the most vulnerable populations not only in the DR-Congo but in other countries with similar issues.

With all of this in place, USTL can have not only a pre-med program but a full medical school accessible to anyone in the area, which has a population of about 700,000. It will include the specialized training required by the particular needs of the area, such as fistula repair, and the diseases common to the area--Tuberculosis, HIV-AIDS, malaria, and typhoid.


Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Lodja suffered enormously during COVID-19. Because transportation to Lodja is primarily via air, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods suffered when air transport was suspended during the pandemic. Though some supplies could arrive via truck and barge, most could not. University dorms which did not yet have roofs were damaged when trees grew in the interiors, rendering them uninhabitable. The plan for housing villagers who wanted to pursue education had to be suspended until repairs were made--which has not yet happened. Furthermore, professors who were being flown from Kinshasa to Lodja to give instruction were unable to travel, and thus medical training was turned over to available personnel, who were not always qualified to teach.

The state mandate that universities with pre-medical training cancel their programs unless they had qualified professors and on-campus clinics hit USTL (Lodja) hard, and 150 students were left with wasted years of education.

Our solution makes lectures and medical demonstrations accessible via the RACHEL and Raspberry Pi, connected to Chromebooks or mobile devices. It cancels the need to transport professors from distant cities. As students resume their studies, they become contributing members of Lodja society. Many exchange work for tuition and so can be employed rebuilding the dorms.

This project will immediately help 150 students who lost their educational opportunities. These students, re-admitted, will help rebuild the dorms as part of their tuition. When the forty dorms are re-built, 160 students from the distant (and poorer) villages will have housing. (They must have housing in order to continue their education, since their villages are hundreds of kilometers away from Lodja.) Thus we see the ripple effect, which will continue as more villagers come to USTL and a medical clinic is completed.

The technology we will be using for pre-med studies will also work for literacy training, preparation for entrepreneurships, and instructional films in other subjects. All of these materials are already uploaded on the RACHELs in Lodja. 

Since the university also includes a program in IT, students pursuing technology can be employed to upgrade and maintain the various devices and to assist students in designing curriculum. With Open Educational Resources available from organizations such as Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/), with which we work, the possibilities are endless.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

Representatives of Congo Rising Corporation were in Lodja after the announcement that pre-med programs at universities without certified professors and clinics were disbanded. They were already aware of the university's financial straits and that travel expenses for bringing in professors were prohibitive. Congo Rising representatives had brought a RACHEL (www.worldsolutions.org), an information hub which allows as many as fifty users to connect to curriculum, courses, and films through limited wifi.  Even without sustainable power, as long as the RACHEL and the mobile devices are charged, the connection to the information hub is easy to access. Entire courses can be stored in the hub.

Upon further consideration, Congo Rising partnered with Bimpa Production (Kinshasa) to film lectures and demonstrations for future medical training, and with Community Development Network, an organization which opens access to digital learning tools and innovative tech solutions. CDN’s library, “Open Content for Development” (OC4D) is free via app, website, or wifi community hot-spot offline  (RACHEL). Dr. Tiffany Ivins Spence of CDN has also recommended the Raspberry Pi, which will give students the freedom to participate in curriculum design.

We are positioned to propose digital solutions for the 150 pre-med students at USTL (Lodja, DR-Congo). They represent thousands of other pre-med students throughout the Congo whose universities lacked clinics or qualified faculty and were therefore also cut when the government established criteria for all pre-med programs. We propose a pilot program which will demonstrate the effectiveness of digital solutions and will open possibilities for all pre-med students in the country. 

As this pilot program restores the pre-med lectures at USTL, it will show how that the same may be done elsewhere in the country, thus restoring hope for students who just lost their program.

The Raspberry Pi  can 'make computing accessible and affordable' (https://www.raspberrypi.com/). Using the new 5G servers which have the RACHEL software on the Raspberry Pi quad core computer, students and administrators can design the best curriculum, execute tests to monitor progress, and meet all government requirements. 

We have assembled a perfect team for stepping into the future: a film production organization, a non-profit with vast experience in the designated work area (Lodja), a network specializing in innovative digital technology, and the university itself.  We are also bringing in a Congolese businessman, Aime Mbuyi, to help structure the program. The work will be cooperative and synergistic. Laboratory demonstrations may be filmed in Kinshasa for full instruction and duplicated in the clinic at USTL when it is equipped.

This proposal also requests funding for medical equipment to furnish the university's clinic.


Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Build fundamental, resilient, and people-centered health infrastructure that makes essential services, equipment, and medicines more accessible and affordable for communities that are currently underserved;
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Lodja, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Our solution's stage of development:
  • Pilot
How many people does your solution currently serve?
5000
Why are you applying to Solve?

At present, USTL (University of Science and Technology- Lodja) is failing due to the suspension of the medical track of education. In addition, its isolation from the rest of the DRC--it is accessible either by a two-week boat/truck trip or by a weekly flight--has resulted in incomplete projects. Its clinic was being built and was to have been in service in 2020, but because of COVID19, flights to Lodja were suspended and the work on the clinic was halted. 

Poverty is the strongest mitigating factor in USTL's success. Professors are paid with tuition money, but most students cannot pay full tuition, which is $300/year. Tuition was also intended to cover flights for the medical professors from Kinshasa, at a cost of $800/round trip (USD). These trips have also been halted. With the suspension of the medical program and the failure of the clinic due to COVID19, the university is in rapid decline while medical needs in the area increase.

We are looking for financial support to put a program in place which cancels the need for transporting professors and which can restore instruction to the students who lost their program. We are also seeking a way to finish the clinic and furnish it with equipment which will facilitate on-hands medical training. 


In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
  • Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Tiffany Ivins Spence
More About Your Solution
Your Team
Your Business Model & Funding
Solution Team:
Margaret Young
Margaret Young
President