{"id":5135,"date":"2017-10-27T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=5135"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:06:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:06:13","slug":"videoconferencing-in-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2017\/10\/27\/videoconferencing-in-ethiopia\/","title":{"rendered":"Videoconferencing enables clinical education in Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia. It\u2019s a country with limited bandwidth and just a single internet service provider\u2014the government. But don\u2019t count it out for videoconferencing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVideo conferencing has exceeded my expectations.\u201d
\n\u2014Bob Riddle<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

Using collaborative technology for videoconferencing began as a pilot with U-M in March 2014, but the international partnership goes farther back. \u201cWe asked ourselves, \u2018What can we do to educate residents in Ethiopia without requiring extensive travel?\u2019\u201d said Bob Riddle, software engineer for Health Information Technology & Services (HITS). \u201cHow can we take advantage of the education that is already available, both within the country and beyond?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Riddle knew that a successful learning environment needs a human element\u2014face-to-face dialogue\u2014as opposed to one-way, digital curriculum. His solution? \u201c<\/span>Videoconferencing<\/span><\/a> has exceeded my expectations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Bob Riddle configures videoconferencing infrastructure with colleagues in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.<\/p><\/div>\n

Connecting global partners with Michigan Medicine<\/span><\/h2>\n

More than 150 U-M faculty representing 30 departments are engaged in global health with collaborations spread across more than 70 countries. Michigan Medicine has agreements with 31 partner schools and institutions abroad through its <\/span>Office of Global REACH<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first project undertaken by Michigan Medicine in Ethiopia started in 2011 and focused on launching a competency-based, OB-GYN residency program\u2014the first of its kind at <\/span>St. Paul\u2019s Millennium Medical College<\/span><\/a>. It was spearheaded by Prof. Senait Fisseha, U-M adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology, who was raised in Ethiopia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The OB-GYN residency program included collaboration with Open Michigan to produce <\/span>open educational resources<\/span><\/a>, digital assets that opened the door to technology collaborations across the institution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Setting up videoconferencing was just a day in the life for Riddle. As part of his HITS role, he has been supporting the IT infrastructure of St. Paul\u2019s from Ann Arbor since 2013. He\u2019s also been on the ground in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since 2015 through the <\/span>Center for International Reproductive Health Training<\/span><\/a>, a group that trains health professionals in low-income countries in life-saving reproductive health services and comprehensive family planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Bob Riddle presents at the Michigan IT Symposium in 2014 (download PDF poster<\/a>). The topic: how to share digital learning materials at institutions with no or limited bandwidth, electricity, and IT support.<\/p><\/div>\n

Getting it right in Ethiopia<\/span><\/h2>\n

When it came to making videoconferencing work in Ethiopia, Bob Riddle and his collaborators were met with many challenges. Faced with limited bandwidth and too few IT staff, they needed a turnkey solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBob is always concerned and tirelessly visiting us to check the technical setup,\u201d said Seyoum Assefa, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in Ethiopia. \u201cHis response is very fast whenever we have difficulties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVideoconference lectures are very important for institutions with few faculty members.\u201d
\n\u2014Seyoum Assefa<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

The Department of Anesthesiology at Michigan Medicine broadcasts weekly lectures to clinical residents in Ethiopia and elsewhere. That frequency is rare in the medical community, where most meetings occur monthly or quarterly. \u201cVideoconference lectures are very important for institutions with few faculty members,\u201d said Assefa, who also praised the fidelity of the video and audio: \u201cThe lecture is clear and we can easily hear the voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

BlueJeans<\/span><\/a> is the preferred videoconferencing tool at U-M. Prior to that, Riddle used a competing, software-based service that also offers videoconferencing and screen sharing. But it wasn\u2019t quite right. \u201cWe found that the prior solution was not as accessible, and it didn’t behave nearly as well as BlueJeans,\u201d said Riddle.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also tried a hardware solution built on technology that does not perform well in limited-bandwidth environments. BlueJeans service adjusts dynamically to the amount of bandwidth available, keeping the connection stable for a seamless user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another challenge: Ethiopia has only a few available public IP addresses\u2014almost everything is connected to a NAT network, which assigns a single public address to devices inside a private network. \u201cThe wonderful thing about BlueJeans is you can be on a local network with private IP addresses, and you don\u2019t have to do anything. It just works,\u201d said Riddle.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/div><\/div>
Read more:\u00a0\u201cCampus collaborates with BlueJeans videoconferencing\u201d<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia. It\u2019s a country with limited bandwidth and just a single internet service provider\u2014the government. But don\u2019t count it out for videoconferencing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[74,51,225],"class_list":["post-5135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects-services","category-features","tag-bluejeans","tag-medical","tag-videoconferencing"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",600,451,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02-125x94.jpg",125,94,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02-266x200.jpg",266,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",600,451,false],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",600,451,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",600,451,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",600,451,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02-200x140.jpg",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02-60x42.jpg",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02-600x300.jpg",600,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",600,451,false],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Riddle_02.jpg",333,250,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ken Caldwell","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/kencald\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Ethiopia. It\u2019s a country with limited bandwidth and just a single internet service provider\u2014the government. But don\u2019t count it out for videoconferencing.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5135"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14980,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5135\/revisions\/14980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}