The WHO/UNICEF Integrated Management Childhood Illness (IMCI) guidelines are being introduced in developing countries worldwide. The standard IMCI training course requires 11 days of lectures and clinical practice, with about six facilitators for 20 first-level health providers. The Quality Assurance (QA) Project developed a computer- based version of the course that reduced the training time to nine days and requires only four facilitators. The Ugandan Ministry of Health and the QA Project collaborated on a randomized comparison study of the two training courses in 1999–2000. The objective of the study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of the two courses on trainees’ knowledge, skill, and performance of IMCI. Three rounds of training were conducted with clinical officers and nurses from primary health facilities in three districts. In all, 114 providers were trained (55 using the standard course and 59 using the computer course). Knowledge and skills between the two groups were compared pre-training, immediately post-training, and three to four months after training. Costs of the two courses were also calculated. (author's)