The shortage of skilled health workers is proving to be an acute problem in many emerging markets, and the reason for this is due to the lack of medical education. The need for sophisticated technology workers in the healthcare industry is a never ending process. In order to keep up with the demand, education seems to be only way to meet that need. The World Health Organization estimates that the world needs more than 7 million additional skilled health professionals, as many parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa are facing shortages at epic proportions.
However, a big opportunity for rapid progress has emerged as online medical education becomes increasingly common. That includes improved access to healthcare education and continued education through online resources. Doctors and nurses in even the poorest countries can now get much better training. The goal to combat this issue is to build a link between clinical providers and business leaders in health and technology for smart use of information from analytics to big data.
A large number of universities, NGOs, private companies, government health agencies and doctors around the world are embracing e-learning technologies like webcasts and online study aids to broaden enrollment and improve educational outcomes. The stunning advances in mobile device technology such as faster processing speeds, high – quality digital imaging and location awareness are contributing in a massive way to the growth of Mobile Learning. The availability of high speed bandwidth and new device capabilities are enabling sophisticated multimedia Mobile Learning applications, including simulations and game – based learning.
This brings us to the fallacies that may occur. Medical education in emerging markets typically suffers from a few problems – Firstly, the recent proliferation of operating systems and nonstandard browsers, combined with rapidly evolving devices will create more chaos than certainty for developers planning to release mobile learning products. Secondly, medical universities and residency programs usually do not have enough qualified instructors, and sometimes lack access to modern curricula and equipment. Third, weak or nonexistent continuing medical education (CME) programs prevent health workers from keeping their skills sharp. And finally, often-onerous data charges, patchy connections, lack of technological competency can limit their efficacy.
There is a definite sea of change in terms of the usage of mobile technology and healthcare, the growth has been tremendous, as have been the many challenges associated with it. Whatever the case, e-learning will continue to expand in size and scope to keep pace with a rapidly growing and constantly changing industry.
