12 Jan E-Learning May Facilitate Education of Health Professionals
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Živa Cotič
Research Assistant & PhD Student,Global eHealth Unit
Imperial College London and
A/Prof Josip Car
Director of Health Services and Outcomes Research Programme
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Director of Global eHealth Unit
School of Public Health, Imperial College London
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The Department of Health Workforce in collaboration with the Department of Knowledge, Ethics and Research at the World Health Organization commissioned the report to provide countries with evidence to inform and guide the adoption of innovative, technology enabled models into health professional education. The report aims to address complex challenges of 21st century global workforce development through eLearning, which has been recognised as key to building more effective health education and a stronger, better qualified workforce.
Global workforce development is one of the most pressing global health issues. The World Health Organization estimates the shortage of the health workforce at approximately 7.2 million health workers, with an expected increase to 12.9 million by 2035. The magnitude of the health workforce challenges the health care systems are facing require both greater investment and more effective and strategic use of available resources.
The findings of the report suggest that eLearning could be equivalent to traditional forms of learning in regard to knowledge and skill acquisition in health education. This information is crucial for policy makers and educators who are forming future education.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: The report has shown that eLearning has the potential to support capacity building in different contexts, and can enable health workers to take charge of their own education and continuous competency development. eLearning offers health professionals a chance to play a full role as change agents in addressing the work force challenges of the 21st century.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: The research available to date has been focused on educational institutions in high-income countries rather than in low- and middle- income countries. Additionally, there is a need for research of eLearning interventions in vocational-based learning environments or rural communities. Future studies should also report on the educational environment and the culture in which the intervention took place.
Perhaps the most important omission in the available evidence so far is the lack of cost-effectiveness studies and lack of reporting of economic considerations in the comparisons of eLearning interventions – including production costs and energy usage.
Overall, eLearning technology should not be just another medium for the delivery of undergraduate health professional education. Rather, it should facilitate wider change in health professional training – in the amount of information that could be delivered and the number of people these methods could reach in order to ensure quality education.
Citation:
published at http://whoeducationguidelines.org
on Monday 12 January 2015.
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Last Updated on February 4, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD