A Memorandum of Understanding on a joint initiative on 'Tele-consultation on child health' was signed at EMRO on 10 February 2009 between WHO/EMRO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Faculty of Medicine of Alexandria University (AU), the Egypt Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) and Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP). The initiative aims at improving the performance of health care providers working in remote areas in Egypt (Siwa district in Matrouh governorate) by tele-consultations and other e-health techniques, as part of continued medical education. It also aims at strengthening the medical educational process at Alexandria University to enhance student knowledge and skills acquisition by e-learning, based on e-resources of the EMRO pre-service education initiative on Integrated Management of Child Health (IMCI). The duration of this pilot project is one year. Senior teaching medical staff of different specialties of the Paediatric Department of Alexandria Faculty of Medicine—already a partner in the EMRO IMCI pre-service education initiative for many years—will be conducting tele-consultations on specific clinical cases by videoconferences regularly and on an emergency basis to guide health provider practice in Siwa. The IMCI guidelines will be the reference for children under-five.

The initiative will also provide the health providers with access by video-conferences to the scientific meetings regularly conducted by the Paediatric Department. The Child and Adolescent Health unit (CAH) of EMRO will provide technical support to the initiative, which will be financially managed by UNDP. MCIT will provide technical and equipment support for tele-consultations and e-learning facilities, while MOHP will implement and monitor the agreed plan for its health providers and facilities.