The COVID-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on Peru's population, resulting in one of the highest reported excess death rates in the world. To help respond to the pandemic in Peru, MSH-Perú, the Peruvian affiliate of Management Sciences for Health headquartered in Medford, Massachusetts, approached Medical Care Development Inc. (MCD), headquartered in Augusta, Maine, to leverage MCD's online Global eTraining & Technical Assistance Center (GETTAC) platform to develop an eTraining course on COVID-19 for public health authorities and staff in Perú.

By working together, the two organization perceived that they could leverage MCD's technical expertise and over 40 years of experience supporting communities around the world to prepare and respond to infectious disease pandemics and its information technology capabilities which include its COVID-19 eTraining module for community health workers developed by MCD in early 2020 and made available free-of-charge in English, Spanish, French and Arabic, with MSH-Perú's country-specific experience, knowledge and expertise in the design, execution, evaluation and monitoring of socio-economic programs to promote the public health and welfare for marginalized populations in Perú.

On March 1, 2021, MCD and MSH-Peru signed an agreement to create an MCD/MSH-Perú joint venture with the purpose of launching a new co-branded public health training platform for Perú. The inaugural eTraining module on this new eTraining platform is the Covid-19 eTraining course for Perú. The module is being offered free-of-charge to public health authorities and staff throughout Perú's 24 regions as an in-kind contribution to the country's efforts to fight back against the pandemic.

The inaugural COVID-19 eTraining module underwent beta testing and final editing based on the feedback provided by 33 staff members from the Peruvian Government's PENSION-65 social security program selected from all 24 regions of the country. The finalized COVID-19 eTraining course for Peru was officially launched by MCD/MSH-Peru on April 5, 2021.

MCD/MSH-Peru's Covid-19 eTraining course for Perú provides an inter-active, self-paced course on COVID-19, which clearly explains the new coronavirus, how COVID-19 is transmitted and how it can be prevented, who is at the highest risk of contracting the disease, what the symptoms of COVID-19 are, how to be tested and interpret the test result, how to deal with the stress and anxiety associated with the pandemic, and clarifying the myths associated with COVID-19 and its transmission, among other topics.

Dr. Edgar Medina, MSH-Peru's Executive Director said, “I completed MCD's COVID-19 module for community health workers in Spanish and was very impressed not only by the module's content but also by the novelty of the information delivery system. I foresaw the positive impact that the COVID-19 module adapted to Peru's context and health system could have on addressing this scourge throughout all 24 regions of the country. I am excited about the new joint venture partnership with MCD and about the impact that the MCD/MSH-Peru COVID-19 eTraining course can have for helping to combat the coronavirus scourge in my country.”

MCD/MSH-Perú looks forward to adapting various other public health training modules from MCD's GETTAC platform in the future, including modules focusing on chronic disease management, and making these courses available at a reasonable cost to the health authorities and personnel in Perú via the new MCD/MSH-Perú on-line public health training platform for Perú.