Disease experts from Oxford University are launching Internet training scheme for African doctors.
The 'e-learning' programme, funded with a £325,000 donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is being set up to help keep medics in Third World countries up to date.
Health care in African countries is under strain from diseases like Aids, and the situation is aggravated by a shortage of doctors and other health workers, many of whom do not receive adequate on-the-job training.
The university's online and interactive scheme will help them to keep up to date with modern clinical practice, and offer them the chance to work for new qualifications.
The programme will start as a pilot in one or two countries, focusing on malaria.
It will then be expanded to cover other major diseases affecting the African continent.
Director Dr Stephen Allen said: "E-learning offers the exciting prospect of empowering health professionals to strengthen good clinical practice in their own hospitals and clinics."
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