Maghreb doctors need capacity building in epidemic investigation and control.

OBJECTIVE: Describe the training needs of young Maghreb doctors in epidemic management. METHODS: This is a study to quantify the need for medical training on "epidemic management". The study population was formed by residents and assistant professors of the French-speaking faculties of medicine in the Greater Maghreb, hospital-university professors, who were invited to respond to an online questionnaire. The "need" for learning a skill was defined by the perception of its importance, of its low coverage by the curricula and its poor mastery. A grid with 20 items, coded according to the Likert scale of 1 to 5 points, was specially developed for the measurement of need, retained beyond the thresholds of 45/90 points for the two dimensions "confirmation" and "investigation", 60/120 points for the "control" dimension, and 150/300 for the total sum. RESULTS: A total of 121 young Maghreb doctors answered the questionnaire to assess the needs for learning epidemic management skills. The median overall scores for the chapters "importance", "coverage" and "performance" were 76, 40 and 48 respectively out of 100 points. The median scores for training "needs" were 54/90, 48/90 and 67/120 points, respectively, for the dimensions "confirmation", "investment" and "control", giving a global median score of 168 / 300. CONCLUSION: Capacity building in epidemic management is a need felt by young Maghreb doctors, partially covered by current medical school programs, and consequently altering their professional performance.

Results of 25 years of Maghrebian scientific medical research in the Grand Maghreb. Bibliometric analysis of the Scimago platform (1996-2020).

OBJECTIVE: Describe the trend and the characteristics of the positioning of Maghreb medical production and its visibility, at the global, African and Arab level, following an in-depth reading of the Scimago platform, over a period of 25 years (1996-2020 ). METHODS: This is an in-depth reading, centered on the Maghreb, of the Maghreb medical production referenced on the Scimago platform, from 1996 to 2020. The bibliometric extracts were based on the number of published "documents" and the index H: number of articles (h) from a country having received at least h citations. The benchmarking of the productivity and medical visibility of the five Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania) was carried out at the global (237 countries), African (59 countries) and Arab (21 countries) level. RESULTS: Following the first African countries producing the most medical documents (South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria), the position of the Maghreb countries varied from 4 in Tunisia to 36 in Mauritania. In Arab countries, the position of medical production, dominated by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, was 12 and 18, successively in Algeria and Libya. The evolution of medical documents recorded a cross between Tunisia and Morocco in 2014, followed by a deceleration in Moroccan production. In the Maghreb, the h index varied from 154 in Tunisia to 29 in Mauritania. CONCLUSION: In addition to its weak position in the world, African and Arab rankings over the past 25 years, Maghreb medical research has been characterized by a major fluctuation. The "Alliance for Excellence" charter of the PRP2S Network, based on the promotion of university essays and electronic journals, constitutes an operational roadmap for the development of the production and visibility of research in the Maghreb.