Bridge5 - A Lean Pilot to Get Five Doctors Back into Practice

Written By Abubaker Obeidalla

Doctors in low-income or conflict-affected regions routinely hit a paywall: the post-graduate course they need costs more than their annual salary. Talent stalls, public hospitals lose skilled staff, and patients wait longer—or go without care altogether. Bridge5 is our proof-of-concept answer.

1. What exactly is Bridge5?

A six-week, fully assessed learning pathway for five doctors who already hold a primary medical qualification but can’t afford mainstream post-grad fees. The first module focuses on haematology; future rounds will add cardiology, acute care, critical appraisal and more.

The five learning blocks

# Block Outcome you can measure 1 Specialist micro-credential Pass/fail exam & OSCE station 2 Virtual ward rounds Logged real-time case discussions 3 Case-report sprint One peer-reviewed publication 4 Virtual clinic sessions Recorded, mentored consultations 5 Remote research stint Dataset cleaned or analysis completed

Everything is benchmarked against our draft Global Clinical Competency Standard (GCCS). If a block doesn’t improve patient care, we cut it.

2. Why only five doctors?

  • Control & iteration – with a micro-cohort we can adjust the syllabus weekly, see the effect quickly, and publish transparent data without drowning in complexity.

  • Proof before scale – funders, regulators and future volunteers can judge us on real outcomes rather than promises.

  • Human-sized storytelling – five individuals are easy to track; their progress will be visible and relatable in each update.

3. How does it link to recognised exams?

The haematology block covers the blood-and-oncology domains common to MRCP, UKMLA and USMLE. Acute-care drills mirror cardio-respiratory scenarios tested in all three. Weekly quizzes and an eight-week mock keep scores honest; we tweak content until marks line up with external pass thresholds.

Bottom line: a GCCS pass should give a doctor the confidence (and the evidence) to sit whichever formal exam their career path requires, without paying inflated tuition just to “learn the exam”.

4. Why the six-week format works

Old model Bridge5 model 6–12 months, lecture-heavy 6 weeks, live and applied Attendance = credit Outcomes = credit £4 000–£10 000 fees Low four-figure cost per doctor* Classroom + travel 100 % remote delivery

*We will publish the actual per-doctor cost once the pilot closes.

5. Built-in transparency

  • Updates — We’ll post start-point data, mid-programme metrics, and final outcomes right here on the Bridge5 blog.

  • Financials — IndexClub Ltd files with Companies House (registration 15735552). Anyone can check the numbers.

  • Open source — Once stable, our teaching scripts and de-identified learner data will move from private to public GitHub repos.

  • RSS — Subscribe at /bridge5?format=rss and every update lands in your reader automatically.

6. Why grassroots funding?

Traditional grants can take 9-12 months to land and often demand we mould the project to the funder’s agenda. GoFundMe lets individual clinicians, technologists and concerned citizens back the idea directly. Many small notes make the chord, and every donor gets the same view of the ledger.

7. How you can get involved

(apologies for the direct ask—clear requests work)

  1. Tag someone who might care — a clinician, educator, technologist or policy-maker. One thoughtful tag beats blanket sharing.

  2. Offer a skill — mentoring, data analysis, cloud support. Message us and we’ll sort the logistics.

  3. Chip in if it resonates — [GoFundMe link]. Even small amounts move the dial when the cohort is only five people. We’re operating on a budget and need to fund in-house technology that can make this happen.

What success looks like

  • All five doctors pass every GCCS block.

  • At least four sit a recognised exam within six months and achieve a first-time pass rate equal to or better than the global average.

  • Each doctor logs a minimum of 200 patient interactions (virtual clinic + ward rounds) by the end of the pilot.

  • We publish the full syllabus, anonymised data set, and per-doctor cost so that any hospital, NGO or ministry can copy or improve on Bridge5.

If we hit those numbers, we’ll move straight to Bridge10—ten doctors, two specialities—and repeat the same transparent cycle.

Questions, suggestions, constructive scepticism? Let’s connect, or reconnect!

Abubaker Obeidalla