Grantee: Dr Michael Held
Position: Director
Department: Orthopaedic Research Unit
Course: Orthopaedics
Degree level: Undergraduate
Open textbook: Orthopaedics for Primary Health Care

Read about Michael's Open Textbook Journey

 

The power of a networked approach towards building a curriculum that is appropriate for the South African context

The aim of "Learning Innovation through Orthopaedic Network" (LION) project led by Dr Michael Held was to develop an openly licensed undergraduate orthopaedic textbook which can be used for student-centered collaborative learning.  

One of the main educational challenges faced by medical students in South Africa is the limited instruction time that they have to acquire skills and knowledge in orthopaedic surgery. This is not adequate to prepare them for clinical work during internship and community service years, which have a significant orthopaedic component. 

Added to this, current learning resources are mainly based on guidelines and textbooks from the Global North. As such, no African learning material specific to local pathology and circumstances exists. The LION initiative aimed to create a resource which is practical and relevant to undergraduate medical students in Southern Africa and can be used as a continuous learning and reference resource by primary care physicians.  

Dr Michael Held was the Director of the Orthopaedic Research Unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT at the time of receiving the DOT4D grant in 2019. The Orthopaedics for Primary Health Care textbook produced in the grant period was the co-recipient of the inaugural 2020 UCT Open Textbook Award