Last month, the Principality of Monaco provided the Ordre de Malte France with a contribution to set up a teletraining unit in its Dakar hospital in Senegal. Still faithful to its initial mission of raising consciousness and combating leprosy, the Order of Malta’s Hospital Centre (CHOM), inaugurated this year, has broadened its field of action to orthopaedic surgery and functional rehabilitation, acquiring an operating theatre of European standard.

Its mission to transfer skills remains one of its priorities and in October 2011 a unit will be set up for training medical staff. With the ambition of being a point of reference for west Africa, CHOM will be proposing this teletraining system on surgical techniques to both medical students and to surgeons. Equipped with suitable audiovisual material, the teaching unit can accommodate a considerable number of participants, both physically present and remote. The surgical operations will be performed in optimal teaching and health and safety conditions, preventing the risks incurred by having students present in the theatre.