At least 50 students from the University of Rwanda’s College of Medicine and Health Sciences are set to undertake a cervical cancer prevention course.

The online course managed by e-oncologia from the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) is sponsored by Sphera Global Health Care.

The six week training programme will begin on Monday February 15.

"The methodology is solely online and participants are supported by a qualified tutor, who will guide them through virtual classrooms and forum discussions,” said Andrea Malet, in charge of social corporate projects of Sphera Global Health Care.

The course designed by ICO staff is expected to keep medical professionals updated on the latest procedures.

It is accredited by the "Accreditation Council of Oncology in Europe (ACOE)” and by the "Commission for Continuing Education of Spanish National Health System.

Specific virtual classrooms have been setup at the school to facilitate the training.

Why cervical cancer

Cervical cancer remains one of the commonest cancers with 3.5 million women between the ages 15 and 44 being at risk.

The Human Papilloma Virus centre at ICO currently estimates that 1,366 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 804 succumb to the disease annually within the country.

Dr Stephen Rulisa, the dean at College of Medicine and Health sciences told The New Times that the collaboration will improve the nationwide fight against cancer.

"When you have more people trained, more awareness is created and diseases are detected at an early stage followed by immediate onset of treatment,” said Dr Rulisa.

Dr Rulisa who is also a trained obstetrician gynecologist added that although gynecological cancers have been the initial focus, upcoming trainings will explore other diseases.

"We are dealing with gynaecological cancers first, but in future we shall expand to have many students take on the course,” he added.

Sphera Global Health Care works to strengthen the skills of specialists.

On the other hand the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) through its e-learning programme, e-oncologia, offers a consolidated teaching methodology of virtual training grouped into five programmes, 48 courses that have been translated into five languages, with more 13,000 participants around the world.

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