Seminar #37
Distance/Non-traditional learning methods for Continuing Medical Education provides opportunities for compliance success in Resource Limited Countries
International Medical Technologies/MLT Consultants
No invitations necessary; open to all conference registrants
Wednesday 7 December
7:00 – 8:30
CTICC room location: 2.4
TARGET AUDIENCE:
Medical technicians/scientists, Ministry of Health Officials, Chief of Party for Healthcare organizations, NGO representatives.
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:
As the world becomes more digitized there are fewer barriers to finding valuable information via the internet and mobile devices. Populations may not have access to traditional learning opportunities such as conferences, symposiums and workshops, but there is a critical need to provide more accessibility to learning opportunities. Many healthcare professionals are faced with the challenge of doing so with limited time and resources, and day-to-day staff may not be afforded the opportunity to seek continuing education outside of their facility.
In the course of a day they may see over a dozen patients and/or their samples, review countless charts and make critical decisions that directly impact patient care. In the course of that day, week or month professionals are still expected to stay compliant with Continuing Education. The challenge of finding the right courses, arranging travel, justifying the costs for attending CME activities has become another job in itself. The VESSEL EDUCATION APP provides Accredited CME courses for all healthcare professions at the touch of a finger.
By providing Continuing Medical Education (CME) in a mobile device based platform it allows healthcare professionals to learn about new techniques, cutting edge technologies or even research medical references in the palm of their hand. Our exclusive technology allows participants to set the time intervals for learning, have an auto-save feature that picks up wherever they left off and has direct links to medical references and resources to research in an instant.
Distance or Online learning is not only one of the most popular ways for healthcare professionals to learn, but also one of the most cost and time efficient methods as well. In 2013 1,010,301 Hours of CME Instruction was provided to over 24,000,000 US Doctors, Nurses, Laboratory Scientists, Healthcare Executives, etc. often completed on their own personal time. Internet based Enduring Materials (Online courses) were the second most utilized continuing medical education option for physicians and non-physicians for Jointly sponsored CME. In the African context this market is grossly underutilized for a general population of over 1 billion people and their mobile devices. The SLMTA/SLIPTA program calls for the allocation of resources for education and training inclusive of the laboratory accreditation process.
While meeting the strict educational standards of traditional conferences and seminars, distance learning allows staff to access a plethora of educational resources and topics that directly improve the quality of patient care. The VESSEL EDUCATION mission is to put CME in the hands of Healthcare providers around the world to help reduce health disparities, improve provider access to education thus improving access to care. Our team of Health Educators and Network professionals are poised to partner with professional societies, Managed Care Organizations and various Healthcare Stakeholders to “Advance healthcare by making it accessible, affordable and safe”.
Distance learning has been a highly successful tool in many nations to ensure that all staff have access to much needed education and training opportunities. With the advent of mobile devices access to these tools are even now more successful and commonplace.
SESSION LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Identify the challenges to meet CME requirements
- Identify new tools available to provide educational opportunities in resource limited countries
- Justify implementation of mobile and distance learning for SLMTA/SLIPTA accredited organizations.
SESSION SPEAKERS:
Prof. Maria Hardy, IMT, CEO & Founder
Professor Maria Stevens Hardy, AHI(AMT), CLC(AMT) is a third generation member of the Healthcare Workforce and the CEO of Medical, Laboratory and Technology Consultants, LLC. After becoming a Quality Assurance Specialist at the age of 25, she traveled to many developing and resource limited countries to improve challenges in healthcare systems. By performing Quality Assessments as a Technical Consultant for MLT Consultants, LLC for laboratories around the world, she has been able to help with the most common challenges that these laboratories encounter; the implementation of Quality Management Systems and the execution of goals for quality in medical diagnostics. As a Health Educator, Maria studied Biology at Howard University in Washington, DC, Biomedical Science Research (BioTech) at University of Maryland School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology, a Certified Allied Health Instructor and Certified Laboratory Consultant. She currently serves as the Government Affairs Liaison for American Medical Technologists (AMT). Prof. Hardy is also an International Medical Affiliate member of ASCP. As a Technical Writer Professor Hardy has penned scientific abstracts, papers and articles. She also creates blogs for ASCP ONELab Under the Microscope and Global Risk Community as the Healthcare contributor. A subject matter expert on Quality Assessment, Regulatory Compliance and Accreditation Maria has also done intensive work on clinical studies including her publication of, ‘Laboratory Accreditation Provides Economic Opportunities and Medical Laboratory Excellence in Resource Limited Countries,’ International Academy of Pathology (IAP2014) October, 2014.