America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

FIEMU NWARIAKU, entrepreneur:

There is a major deficit of skilled doctors and nurses in developing countries, where medical skills often lag behind developed-country standards. Producing new doctors takes too long, and upgrading their skills is expensive because they frequently have to be sent overseas for training.

Trigen Healthcare proposes to close the skills gap by training medical workers more efficiently using sophisticated high-definition videoconferencing technology. This technology will allow us to deliver lectures and skills training to more medical workers at a much lower cost. We will connect Nigerian doctors and nurses with medical experts at major U.S. and European medical centers, who will provide training. Participants in Nigeria will interact with overseas trainers in real time. Our local partner in Nigeria – Galaxy Backbone Plc – offers broadband Internet connectivity necessary for the videoconferencing technology to function efficiently.

In July 2009, we successfully transmitted a live surgical procedure from Texas to Abuja, Nigeria, during a training session for doctors. This trial run proved that our technology works. Our goal is to provide value for our customers while enhancing human development in sub-Saharan Africa.

BARRY MOLTZ, business expert:

Can medical skills be learned through videoconferencing? I suspect that some can and that more of the skills need to be learned in person through demonstration and participation. The entrepreneur needs to find out which skills can be learned through videoconferencing and which skills doctors want to learn this way. He should teach a narrow range of skills first to ensure the technology and the medical material are successfully learned.

ROB SPRANG, business expert:

The Kentucky TeleCare Network does a great deal of medical and other healthcare professional education via videoconference technology. It is my understanding that the proposal will be to use the technology to train healthcare workers to deliver a higher level of healthcare services than they are currently capable.

There is no reason that you cannot train healthcare workers via videoconference technology, but you must be sure that the competencies can be taught and measured using the technology. There are some clinical techniques that probably don’t lend themselves to videoconference teaching, but if the curriculum is appropriately structured, content is properly delivered and outcomes and competencies are carefully determined and measured, then this idea should be fine.

I would suggest that in order to test the strategies, you may wish to pilot test some of the training with a control group that receives the testing in a traditional face-to-face format and the experimental group that is simply in another room, but connected via videoconference technology. This may require that the content and teaching methodologies be modified to distance learning so that the objectives may be met. Simply broadcasting the same lecture that is done face-to-face may not be effective.

Our 3rd year medical students who travel to rural communities for clinical rotations utilize the technology to connect for their weekly Problem Based Learning, Journal Club, lectures and other teaching, so there is certainly a precedent for this kind of activity.

Beginning in 2010, the Rural Leadership Track will select 10 students who have performed their first two years of medical school at the University of Kentucky (UK) to be placed in a rural community hospital where they will receive their final two years of medical school education. They will participate in many lectures and educational programs with their classmates at UK via videoconference technology.