Although this message is directed to a cardiovascular-related group, the content will likely be of interest to other CANCHID subscribers. Season's Greetings and Happy New Millennium! Chuck Shields Executive Director Canadian Cardiovascular Society 222 Queen St., Suite 1403 Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5V9 Tel. 613-569-3407 ext. 400 FAX 613-569-6574 email [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> www.ccs.ca <http://www.ccs.ca> NOTE: The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2000 (including the CCS Scientific Meeting) will take place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia -----Original Message----- From: Ron LaPorte [mailto:[log in to unmask]] <mailto:[mailto:[log in to unmask]]> Sent: December 23, 1999 10:57 AM To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: PROCOR: 12/23/99: Supercourse-Teaching Epidemiology on the Web Dear Colleagues, This is to inform members of this list about an information service available on the web for teaching epidemiology called Supercourse - Epidemiology. A few years ago we decided to take on the task of improving global training in the area of epidemiology, global health and the Internet. A group of people in academia worldwide decided that this was indeed possible, but not through the existing approaches of distance education. We wanted to create something quite different where faculty around the world helps other faculty. I have provided below the executive summary of what we have been doing. We invite your participation in this global effort. We currently have 1303 faculty from 101 countries. It would be wonderful to include more information concerning the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. We look forward to hearing from you. Ronald E. LaPorte, Ph.D. Director, Disease Monitoring and Telecommunications WHO Collaborating Center Professor of Epidemiology Graduate School of Public Health University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15261 USA =================================================== Supercourse: Executive Summary www.pitt.edu/~super1/ <http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/> Question: What is the best way to improve health training/research? Answer: Improve the lectures. Question: How do we improve health training/research lectures: Answer: Have academic faculty worldwide share their lectures: Question: Will faculty share lectures? Answer: Yes, The Supercourse has 1302 faculty from 101 countries who created a free Library of Lectures with 110 lectures on the Internet with quality control, and cutting edge cognitive design, with over 90 promised by Mar. 1. This is being shared worldwide. We are developing a "Library of Lectures" with passionate lectures in prevention from across the world. We propose to expand this to all areas of research in health. Our program consists of: 1. Shareware: A Global faculty is developing and sharing their best, most passionate lectures in the area of Public Health and the Internet. This benefits all. The experienced faculty member can beef up their lectures which are not cutting edge. New instructors reduce preparation time and improve their lectures, as they can employ state of the art lectures from others. Faculty in developing countries have access to current prevention information for the first time. The concept is that of a library of lectures for all to use is in many ways similar to that of "shareware" on the computer. 2. Statistical Quality Assurance: We have established a Deming Model of statistical quality control to monitor lectures over time 3. Supporting the teachers: The Library of Lectures consists of exciting lectures by academic prevention experts in the field. The classroom teacher "takes" them out for free like a library book. There is no direct teaching of students from a distance, rather the concept of the system is to provide cutting edge material for all faculty to present. 4. Hypertext comic book: The lectures are icon driven, and the students can go deep into the Internet for more information through hyperlinks. It is based upon PowerPoint for ease of usage. 5. Presentation Speed: We have discovered technologies to speed access to lectures worldwide. 6. Text books: The British Medical Association has put 2 current text books on line for us. 7. Multilingual: For global use, this must be multilingual, the first lecture is in 8 languages. 8. Voice-Sound Video: We are using state of the art Internet voice-video systems. We soon will be using "clickable" voice video We have published over 75 papers in leading medical journals including the Lancet, British Medical Journal, Nature Medicine, among others. We are working with PAHO to put mirrored servers into every medical school in the Americas this year. Within 5 years we should reach globally all medical schools. WHO has developed a Supercourse. Initial pilot studies reveal that 6000 students will see each lecture each year, which is 150 times larger than our classroom teaching. We have beta tested lectures by 31 teachers world wide, and it works. We are now developing a Chinese Heritage course. We are happy to share the more in-depth description. Please come to our site and join, as well as help each of us help each other. -- Send mail for the 'ProCOR' conference to [log in to unmask] Mail administrative requests to [log in to unmask] For additional assistance, send mail to: [log in to unmask]