WHO SEARO PEN-HEARTS OpenWHO courses to scale up capacity for NCD services in PHC

Increasing health workforce capacity is urgently required to deliver quality care for people with NCDs in primary care settings. Traditional approaches of training through a face-to-face approach have many limitations, given the vast areas to be covered and relative lack of trainers. Self-learning through an easy to access platform with evaluation is the most feasible option. Using the available WHO resources and publications and through the OpenWHO platform of WHO, a series of courses were developed to help in scaling up capacity in PHC for NCD services. This included health system adaptation to introduce NCD services, a set of interventions for NCDs, diabetic foot care and palliative care.

The SEARO NCD PEN-HEARTS online courses were developed in 2023.  They are a series of four structured and linked courses, focusing on adapting WHO packages, NCD interventions, diabetic foot care and palliative care that will enable the learner to plan and deliver NCD services.

1. An integrated approach to management of noncommunicable diseases in primary health care : https://openwho.org/courses/SEARO-NCD-management-PHC
2. Interventions for Noncommunicable Diseases in Primary Health Care: https://openwho.org/courses/SEARO-interventions-NCDs-PHC
3. Prevention and management of diabetic foot problems: https://openwho.org/courses/SEARO-diabetic-foot-care
4. Palliative care: Models of service delivery and symptom management: https://openwho.org/courses/SEARO-palliative-care

The courses were developed by a team consisting of subject experts, WHO SEARO NCD staff and an IT company (ENCORA). The content for the first two courses were based on the 2019 WHO package of essential NCD interventions (WHO PEN). The third course was developed using the 2023 revised guidelines from International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF), and the fourth course was developed in consultation with experts in the field of Palliative Care. Once available on the OpenWHO platform, they were disseminated through SEANET NCD and other networks, national programme managers and through social media channels.