Towards the end of 2008 MMTV broadcast programmes weekly. This proved to be overkill and it became clear that alternate weeks would have been a better option.
At that time we were planning a weekend recording session in the bush. We had selected Mabalingwe near Bela Bela (Warmbaths) as a suitable venue. Sadly our advertising and marketing company failed to deliver and we had to postpone the project until 2009. As you will be aware, sponsorship has now virtually dried up and the project has had to be put on hold.
Ongoing medical educational and interest courses have become very expensive and examining the various options on offer, it appears that many are designed more for profit than as a service to the medical community.
MMTV has since its inception made its goal to remove the cost of providing educational material from our health-care professionals and has endeavoured to find support from the pharmaceutical industry.
We are aware that the activities of the Health Ministry in the past few years seriously impacted on the symbiotic relationship that existed between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry and has made a major impact on funding for research and medical education by the pharmaceutical companies.
Finding sponsors over the past 7 years has been an uphill battle and we at MMTV now need to be convinced that the service we have been providing is really worthwhile and that it will be sorely missed by our health care professionals or whether we have been wasting our time and resources.
We have now reached the end of our personal resources, having contributed substantially both time and money.
Over the years we have approached a number of local and international philanthropic bodies but, whilst they expressed interest in what we are trying to achieve, did not express interest in coming on board
We would like to thank
· all those who have supported the service, in the pharmaceutical industry, Imperial Bank, Netcare hospital division and the staff at Global Access for all the time and effort they put into producing the programmes.
· all the speakers who gave of their time and expertise to appear on our shows, many of whom had to travel long distance to come to the studio.
· all those viewers who contributed by phoning in or SMS-ing questions. Your questions helped to make programmes more alive and interesting.
· all those of you who took the trouble to phone in messages of encouragement and to send letters of appreciation and suggestions. In addition those of you who rated the programmes provided us with valuable information.
In order to continue the service in the circumstances that we find ourselves we need to have 1000 viewers who are prepared to pay R60 - including VAT - per month
This will enable us to provide one or at best two programmes a month – the more viewers, the more programmes
Should we be able to continue the service on a subscription basis, only viewers who have registered and paid this monthly subscription will be encoded on the DStv network. This will help us in two ways. Firstly we will be able to provide the first programme and if viewers pay, we will be able to convince the potential sponsors / advertisers that we have a measurable audience.
Obviously should funding become available in the interim we will advise you by e-mail and SMS as to what the revised strategy will be
WE WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE YOUR FEEDBACK ON MMTV
Please respond to the following questions by way of replying to us by email as follows: MMTV - A or B or C or D
A I would be prepared to pay R60 – inclusive of VAT - a month to ensure the continuance of the MMTV service
B Please make every effort to resume the service as I thought it was excellent
C It would be appreciated if you could resume the service but I see it as a luxury but not really necessary
D Please don’t bother - it is superfluous and a waste of effort
We hope that there will be 1000 viewers who will support us – it is, after all your programme
Regrettably, in the mean time, therefore, we have suspended the service as from the beginning of February.
We have e-mailed as many of you as we were able and would like to apologise for not contacting you sooner but we were hopeful of a last minute sponsorship rescue which unfortunately did not materialise
Kind regards
Roger Edge & Chris Henwood
July 2007
In this issue:
- SMS queries during the programmes
- Netcare Television Update
- Future plans and what’s in the pipeline
- Important information relating to CPD answers
- Feedback
MMTV Update
It’s only July and we will have broadcast 10 programmes since the beginning of the year. We continue to register new viewers daily and are hard at work searching for new programme material and sponsors.
SMS queries during the programmes
We have recently introduced an SMS service using cell phones for asking questions of the panel. This has been in operation for 2 months now and the response has been good. Questions that we have been unable to ask during the programme will be answered on our Chat Room page which we hope will soon become functional.
Apart from the 7 monthly Netcare TV programmes, we have broadcast 2 debates on behalf of the Prof Sats Bhagwanjee of the Anaesthesia Department of Wits, and the Southern Transvaal subgroup of the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists. We have also broadcast in association with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, a budget review by Prof Mathew Lester which followed the presentation of this years budget by Trevor Manuel. Those of you who have heard Mathew Lester know and appreciate his informal and entertaining method of presenting his pearls of wisdom.
The anaesthesia debates were sponsored by Fresenius Kabi. The first of them was on the topics of ‘crystalloids or colloids’ and the speakers were Prof Mike James from the University of Cape Town and Prof Dave Muckaert of the University of Kwazulu Natal. The second topic debated whether general anaesthesia alone was preferable to general anaesthesia combined with regional anaesthesia. The speakers were Ivan Joubert from the University of Cape Town and Dean Gopolan from the University of Kwazulu Natal. Both debates were well received and enjoyed by viewers all over Southern Africa.
Netcare Television Update
The year started with a bang with an interesting discussion on informed consent. Prof Dion du Plessis chaired the panel which included Prof SAS Strauss, Donald Dinnie of Denys Reitz & partners, Prof Sats Bhagwanjee, Kgosi Letlape, Chairman of the South African Medical Association and Eileen Branigan Director of Nursing at Netcare.
Our presentations from March to May have all be on diseases that have a major impact on the people of Southern Africa and which indeed have a major impact on the economies of the region. These have been in order of broadcast Extremely drug resistant Tuberculosis, Malaria and seasonal Influenza. We have had representatives from the Department of Health, The National Institute of Communicable Diseases, the Universities and the private sector. The Influenza debate was sponsored by Roche Pharmaceuticals.
On June 5 th we presented another serious medical problem, which was touched upon when we discussed XDR TB. Superbugs are now becoming a major problem in all hospitals. In our presentation Prof Dion Chaired a panel with Dr Adrian Brink, Dr Willi Sieling, Prof Sats Bhagwhanjee and Prof Johan Snyman. We hope you didn’t miss the presentation. This programme was sponsored by Astra Zenica. We said goodbye to Chante Hinds and wish her well for the future in the platteland.
In July we moved on from the infectious diseases to Colorectal carcinoma. The programme was chaired by Prof Dion and on the panel were Prof Heine van der Walt, Herbie Schneider, Craig Kukard and Paul Kitsa. We are delighted to report that the programme was well received by the viewers.
Our next programme on August 7 th will be on Anaemia and will be sponsored by Janssens Cilag and Altana Madaus. Watch the programme page for further information.
Future plans and what’s in the pipeline
In the pipeline is Rabies [world rabies day is in September], prostate cancer, Renal transplant and asthma.
Following the success of the anaesthetic debates, we hope to present more similar programmes in the future.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION RELATING TO CPD ANSWERS
In order to speed up our CPD responses and to add an evaluation of the programmes to the response, we have now added an SMS facility to our service. If viewers respond by SMS to the number 35801 before 8:00am on the morning after the broadcast, they will be able to answer 3 of the questions on the question set available on the website and the Fax on demand service.
The way to answer the questions is simple: The questions are displayed a few times during the broadcast. When you know the answers, jot them down in sequence starting with the first question. If the answers to the 3 questions are True, True and False, your SMS will read as follows: MMTV TTF
We ask you in addition to rate the programme as Excellent (E), Good (G), Average (A) and Poor (P). If you rated the programme Average, your SMS will now read MMTV TTFA. We are delighted to advise that recent sms program ratings have been “excellent” with ratings exceeding 94%.
Please do not add your name, address, telephone number or anything else to your SMS. We will recognize you by your cell phone number. If you have not registered with us, we will call you to talk you through registration.
If, however, you prefer to answer the full 10 question set, download it from the website or by fax from the fax on demand service (082 239 2811 code 7000).
Please give us your feedback
MMTV ’s continued success and growth relies solely on us exceeding viewer expectations through the delivery of good quality programs which appeal to viewers. Please email us your feedback, good and bad and suggestion which you have to improve our service to you. Please sms or call us during programs, this makes for great interactive television and debate.
Enjoy the programs.
Dr Roger Edge and the MMTV team
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