Empowering the doctor community digitally
While continuous learning and skill enhancement is integral to success in any professional domain, the importance of Continuing Medical Education (CME) can hardly be overemphasized upon. Medical education in the 21st century is changing faster than ever. There are a number of factors that result in the continuous transformation of the health care ecosystem. The role of a medical professional has changed. From a caregiver, doctors today are actively engaged in spreading awareness about the various ailments, their causes, preventions as well as therapies. The expectations of society have also changed as caregivers are now perceived as professionals responsible for patient’s safety, and the ethical guidelines governing the conduct of the doctors as well as the procedures have also changed. Unlike the previous generations, learning interactions and procedures on live patients are no longer acceptable.
The biggest push for digital technology driven online CME has come in the wake of the pandemic. Various medical practices ranging from patient consultations, diagnostic tests, monitoring and managing patient conditions etc are being conducted online due to the infection concerns. Large workshops, medical conferences and seminars have been transformed into webinars, live-streams and online training. The reasons behind using digital technology in medical education include familiarizing the professionals with new developments in therapies, medical technologies, and improving their decision making, skill coordination, preparation for rare or disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and various other evolving facets of therapies and drugs that come to fore from time to time.
Digital technology integration in medical education has not been a sudden change, but, it has emerged over the years as a solution for numerous challenges affecting quality CME delivery. Today, we have seen healthcare delivery move from the conventional in-hospital care to ambulatory medicine and remote monitoring/home-based care. The change of operating environment necessitates changes of documentation, knowledge sharing alongside making the response swifter as well as less time consuming. There is a greater emphasis now on evidence based resource utilization. With changes in the social perceptions, a medical professional now needs to integrate patient safety as a protocol in all processes.
All the challenges in medical delivery and changes of processes, drugs and therapies necessitate CME programmes for the practicing medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, and other caregivers. A healthcare provider’s specialization or expertise doesn’t make any difference to his/her need for CME. The biggest benefit for the medical professionals is the enhancement of their skills that helps them care for the patients better, and in accordance with the changing procedural guidelines. Med-Tech is rapidly evolving and diagnostic tools or surgical technologies are no longer what they were a few decades ago. However, in the absence of CME, a doctor who graduated from medical college 30 years ago, would find him outdated on processes and usage of technology irrespective of the experience. However, CME ensures that the medical professionals gain membership in their respective field of work, renew or retain their licenses, acquire additional specialities and mastery of technologies and therapies that didn’t exist back when they were students in the medical college. Most of the accredited medical bodies and associations all over the world are now providing CME certifications and opportunities to their members.
This is where the digital online tools are proving to be the biggest enablers which eliminate geographical and language barriers to deliver accredited CME to medical professionals. As a caregiver, one needs to attend to the patients regularly, and in situations such as pandemic outbreak, it becomes impossible for the person to take time out and enrol in a physical institution for CME. The challenge is even greater for those looking to acquire international accreditations and certifications. This is where the option to enrol online, accessing lectures and learning materials digitally allows the medical professionals to hone their skills as well as acquire new skills without any need to travel anywhere.
There are some diverse and highly effective digital platforms for CME available today. A healthcare provider can decide to select any course or certification that suits their field of specialization. The entire process from registration to payment of fees and receiving study materials as well as examination process is digital. Thus, there are no administrative hassles to deal with and the evaluation is faster. The learners can track their progress easily and can watch any particular lecture videos multiple times to understand things thoroughly.
Digital CME programmes also integrate tools like surveys and regular assessments to make them more effective for the learners. Each of the CME programmes outlines clear goals, skills one would acquire, information about the certifications and how they can help a medical professional.
Conclusion
Today, constant change and skill upgrade have become crucial elements of healthcare delivery. Medical colleges, associations, senior professionals as well as the young caregivers can jointly enhance the quality of care, outcomes with greater efficiency and less costs with the power of digital CME programmes. In a country like India where there is a severe shortage of skilled healthcare professionals with diverse expertise and experience, digital CME platforms hold the key to quality healthcare coverage in every nook and corner of the nation!
