The use of the Internet training course modality in the field of tissue banking: the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)/National University of Singapore (NUS) experience

Abstract

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) promoted and supported an important training program for the training of tissue bank operators and medical doctors within its radiation and tissue banking program. The purpose of the program was to train an increase number of tissue bank operators and medical doctors in Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe, that were working or were associated to a number of tissue banks established in these regions under the IAEA program during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The National University of Singapore Tissue Bank was designated, in 1996, as the Regional Training Centre (RTC) for Asia and the Pacific region and later on, in 2002, as the International Training Centre (ITC) for the whole IAEA program. The National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires were also designated, in 1999, as the Regional Training Centre for the Latin American region. The objective of the ITC was to train tissue banks operators and medical doctors from all over the world and the RTCs to train tissue bank operators and medical doctors mainly from the Asia and the Pacific and the Latin American regions. Since 1997, training of tissue bank operators and medical doctors were carried out using the modality of distance training courses. However, due to its limitation, this type of courses was transformed, in 2002, in an Internet training course modality, with the purpose to increase not only the number of participants but, at the same time to reduce, as much as possible, the costs associated with the organisation of these courses. Since November 1997, the number of training courses carried out in the RTCs established under the IAEA program was 14, eight of them under the Internet training course modality. The total number of students registered in these courses was 261 and the total number of students graduated was 166 for a rate of approval of 63.6%. The National University of Singapore and the Faculty of Medicine from the University of Buenos Aires are the academic institutions that provide the certificate/diploma to the graduated students.