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WiRED to Unveil E-Library Filling Station
BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW, EDITED BY BERNICE BORN
W
iRED International will soon launch a “filling station,” a vital tool for expanding the global reach of our Community Health Education (CHE) e-library to communities off the grid. WiRED’s filling station will provide file synchronization (or syncing), whereby a person’s computer can upload data from a master file—an automatic process that adds only new or changed material.
Our filling station will allow instant updating of our entire CHE e-library from any Internet access point in the world. Hospitals, clinics, schools, community health workers, Peace Corps Volunteers and others who use WiRED’s health education programs will be able to access new and updated items easily and rapidly.
Health education tools must be kept current to reflect new research, diagnostics and treatments. WiRED constantly adds new training programs to the CHE e-library, covering ever more topics that reflect health conditions around the world.
We deliver, free of charge, our entire e-library of more than 300 health education modules onto thumb drives and laptops. Because WiRED releases a new or updated module almost every week, health workers without Internet access face the challenge of keeping their CHE e-library up to date.
To update files using our new system, people will simply plug thumb drives into a computer or connect their laptops to the Internet, then click a link to WiRED’s filling station. The program will automatically scan the person’s existing CHE e-library to compare it to WiRED’s current and complete collection. The process downloads all files needed to equate the two sets of data.
People working in isolated regions of the world occasionally travel to a town or city where they can connect to the Internet to update files—or someone in an urban area can bring an updated thumb drive into the field. Either way, health workers will soon “top off” with information on the most current health topics through WiRED’s filling station.
WiRED’s CHE program provides community outreach, in-clinic and school training in isolated areas worldwide. Updating a laptop or thumb drive spreads the new material to those people who sit in group sessions or attend the programs individually to learn about the prevention and treatment of infectious and non-communicable disease. Our team of medical experts and invited medical specialists write the educational programs that WiRED’s modules deliver.
WiRED’s filling station contributes an essential tool to our CHE program—especially when we find it necessary to create rapid response modules that cover sudden outbreaks, such as polio, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Ebola.
WiRED’s goal in all our programs is to convey information and training to remote communities as we seek to correct the global inequality of health knowledge as quickly as possible.
Filling Station Developers
Brian Colombe has provided IT support to WiRED for the past six years. He maintains WiRED’s websites, and the layout and publication of our training modules on WiRED’s Health Education Learning Portal (W-HELP). Brian also works on WiRED's database projects and other IT-intensive activities.
Carl Hutzler worked for nearly 10 years at America Online running AOL’s email and anti-spam systems. Carl currently provides personalized technical support for local schools, small and medium sized businesses and non-profits in the Washington, DC area. Carl is also a professional photographer with some of his recent work available at http://carlhutzler.com/.
Chris Spirito is the International Cyber Lead at The MITRE Corporation and a Board Member at WiRED International. Chris has been advising WiRED for six years on the use of technology in the delivery of healthcare education abroad.
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