By Jessica Numann 06 April 2017
Translation of an article in the Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf”
MeduProf-S strives to good quality healthcare worldwide.
In African countries, the practical knowledge in the hospitals of new equipment is very low, simply because staff is not trained to transfer knowledge into skills. With his company MeduProf-S, Willem van Prooijen is training medical staff to make the difference in a sustainable way. There is a growing demand for these services.
In the 90’s Willem worked as a teacher Ultrasound at Fontys University. It started with the request for a training in Ultrasound in Kenya. Together with his wife (didactical specialist), he successfully trained around 30 medical workers in Ultrasound. After a project in Tanzania (training for nearly 100 hospitals) and other countries, it was time to transfer his department to an independent company. Separated from the burocracy of a University there was more room to grow, Willem explains. Fontys university started to focus on the Netherlands and van Prooijen serves the international market.
With his company MeduProf-S he spread his wings to other disciplines in healthcare, like nursing, physiotherapy and management. At this moment, the company offers around 180 different courses and strives to sustainable (That is the S in the name) healthcare solutions.
Van Prooijen: That is quite a challenge, because the mind-set in Africa is different. Per diems and sitting allowances were the most important motivator to attend a course. That is why knowledge will not be transferred to skills. But now you see a change and hospital staff can value the importance of knowledge and skills. If hospitals can convince their staff, the staff and the equipment will become more effective, with better healthcare as a result.
Besides Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana, MeduProf-S is working on Zanzibar, in Mongolia and Myanmar. Also, the rest of Asia is interested about the didactical concept of MeduProf-S.
With only six staff members and a big group of experts, working 1 or 2 weeks in a project to keep the process rolling, MeduProf-S reached high impact.
As a result of the training activities social bodies are set up and stimulated and congresses with hundreds of visitors are organized by local organisations. “But the transition from knowledge to skills is still a slow process”, van Prooijen is telling with a smile. “People are used to live from day to day”.
MeduProf-S is an enterprise. Van Prooijen: “We are hired by equipment companies and hospital integrators for example “Philips” and “Enraf Nonius””. To finance a new “school” concept, the company started recently a Crowdfunding campaign. The money will be used for marketing, sales and the development of new didactical concepts.
Competition is there on small scale for instance incidental training programs in ultrasound, but MeduProf-S is unique in their approach and variety of disciplines: they are able to train cleaners as well as hospital managers. Van Prooijen is satisfied as every sub-Sahara country has 2 medical schools running, following the MeduProf-S school concept and quotes:
“Every sonographer trained by us, will save four to five lives a week. That is something to be proud on”.
Read the Dutch version of this article in “De Telegraaf”