Where to find Digital Medic’s open-access courses, videos, and other health education resources.

Digital Medic collaborates with organizations worldwide to create engaging, evidence-based health education resources that can be used in diverse settings. Read through the following sections to learn different ways to access and download our content. 

If you would like to share or adapt our materials, please refer to the Digital Medic Content Use Guidelines.

A collaborative, mixed methods study exploring the nuances of vaccine acceptance and evaluating the use of localized educational content to improve vaccine uptake among Indigenous Guatemalans.

Indigenous Maya peoples make up over 40% of Guatemala’s overall population. They have faced substantial barriers to COVID-19 vaccine access and acceptance. Consequently, vaccination rates among Indigenous Guatemalans remained concerningly low in the months following the introduction of the vaccine.

We worked with Wuqu’ Kawoq | Maya Health Alliance and the University of California San Francisco to understand the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy in these populations and to explore a community-centric approach to vaccine outreach. As part of our multi-phase study, we created and disseminated culturally and linguistically appropriate educational video content to target populations via social media, and evaluated its impact on vaccine perceptions.

All videos are available in Spanish, K’iche’, and Kaqchikel on YouTube:

Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

Now, in the shadow of COVID-19 and its pandemic, communities, researchers, advocates, and survivors are seeing and experiencing a worsening of intimate partner violence (IPV). 

We worked with Stanford University’s Department of Emergency Medicine and the community based organization Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence to create a video series that aims to better inform health workers, community members, and survivors about the complexities of IPV, while navigating the challenges the pandemic has created in seeking help.

Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence
Website – www.nextdoorsolutions.org
Twitter – @NDSolutions
Instagram – next_door_solutions
Facebook – Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence

National Domestic Violence Hotline
Website – www.thehotline.org
Call – 1.800.799.SAFE (3224)

YWCA
24/7 Support Hotline – (800) 572-2782

Futures Without Violence
Website for COVID Specific Support – https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/get-updates-information-covid-19/

An animated video models snakebite prevention & treatment tips

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes every year with 2.7 million envenomings (poisoning from snakebites). Snakebite envenomings are a global issue, and a particularly prevalent concern in Eswatini where the majority of the population is at high risk of exposure to a venomous snakebite. 

The best known cure for a snakebite? Preventing it in the first place.

A free advocacy training to elevate the voices of community health workers.

For too long, community health workers (CHWs) have been excluded from discussions that influence their work and their communities. That’s why Advocacy Training for Community Health Workers is a critical course to share with CHWs around the world. This free digital training equips CHWs with the skills to effectively share their personal stories and promote the health issues most important to their communities.

All content is freely available under the Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. See our guidelines around using, sharing, and adapting Digital Medic content here.

Update: Advocacy Training for Community Health Workers has been recognized as a Digital Public Good by the Digital Public Goods Alliance and as one of six Content Global Goods by Digital Square at PATH.

Community health workers are the most proximal and trusted care providers for millions of people around the world. Despite their demonstrated impact, CHWs have historically been excluded from conversations and decision-making that influence their work and communities.

This course was co-created with the Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC) and an advisory group of CHWs from around the world (Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Malawi, and Guatemala). All content is action-oriented and reflective of the realities of CHWs’ work and the challenges they face.

Learners will have the ability to access and download videos, reading materials, and reflection exercises on the following topics:

1. The history and background of CHW programs
2. How to advocate for improved health care and working conditions
3. How to tell personal stories to advocate for change
4. How to use technology tools to participate in global conversations

The free advocacy training course is available in the Digital Medic app for iOS and Android. Learners have the ability to download materials for offline access.

We have also created a free Facilitator Guide to assist with in-person and hybrid group learning sessions. The guide is recommended for CHW trainers and supervisors, and is designed to align with your existing schedule. All materials are available in English, French, and Spanish through the CHIC course website.

Around the world today, more than 80 million learners worldwide engage with massive open online courses (MOOCs). The tremendous reach of open online learning platforms presents a huge opportunity for massive open online public health education too!

At present, one in four children in South Africa is stunted.

Stunting prevents children all over the world from achieving their full potential. The impact of stunting reaches far beyond height – it impairs a child’s brain development, performance in school, and learning ability for the rest of their life – and it can begin even before a baby is born.

Although stunting is largely irreversible, it is preventable.

View all videos on YouTube or in the Digital Medic mobile app in the following languages:

• English
• Xhosa
• Zulu
• Setswana
• Sotho
• Swati
• Afrikaans
• Sepedi

More children are surviving, but not enough are thriving.

Mortality rates for children under 5 have decreased in South Africa, but many children are not reaching their full development potential as evidenced by the high rates of stunting and poor educational outcomes.

The national Side-by-Side campaign in South Africa is working to encourage stronger collaboration between healthcare workers and caregivers to improve children’s health and development, in part through their Road to Health Book that is issued to all new births across the country.

Around the world, more than 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Both new mothers and their infants face an even greater risk of experiencing poor health outcomes if they live in an under-resourced part of the world.

Training Attorneys Working with Children

Under the United States’ Zero Tolerance Policy, thousands of children were separated from their loving caregivers upon arrival at the US border. News agencies, legal and medical professionals estimate that thousands more families were separated prior to the implementation of the policy. Forced separation from a primary caregiver, at any age, is considered a major trauma with lasting negative health effects for children and their families.

Breastfeeding Promotion

The 100% Breastfed Initiative is the result of a collaboration between the Stanford Center for Health Education and numerous local stakeholders including: The Western Cape Dept. of Health, The University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University,  UNICEF, Philani Child Health and Nutrition, The University of the Witswatersrand, University of Limpopo and the First 1000 Days Initiative. The initiative is designed to help raise awareness and improve knowledge around the practice of breastfeeding.

A special version of the 100% Breastfed series was also created for the training of frontline health workers on how to better communicate these critical health messages to the families they serve. By empowering families with knowledge, we can work towards a brighter future for all South Africans.