Technology has been a big part of the world of medicine ever since it first became available. Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, the majority of scientific medical activities, including the training and education of future doctors, was shifted to an online format.
The world uses technology to maintain medical education and keep training the future of health care. In these last years, the world has witnessed how helpful and fascinating online learning can be for the doctors of tomorrow.
It is safe to say that online medical training is one of the key learning trends of today. Even so, the interest in educating health care professionals online dates a while back. For many years now, the health care sector has been using technology at least in some parts of medical education. The goals of this are to facilitate the acquisition of basic knowledge, enhance perceptual variation, provide useful practice, train teams at the same time and so forth.
With so many modern technologies at doctors’ disposal, health care professionals can get a better image of their profession in the future.
Still, the world is a long way from quality online training for medical professionals. While some elements of online learning are included in the training programs of doctors around the world, many of the perks that this offers, as well as the practices that come with online learning are not widely used. While online health care training, as with any online training program, has its challenges, it still offers viable solutions. Here are some of the most prominent benefits of health care training in a virtual environment.
Online Learning Is Not Just a Trend
Online learning is not just a trend, it’s also a great benefit. There are tons of reasons why and how the educational system should add technology into the picture. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Access to helpful tools
When future doctors learn online, they have access to a myriad of different tools that can help the process. Thanks to technology, it is now easier than ever to create medical forms by using ready templates. Instead of creating reports manually, professionals can show students how to learn by example and thus maximize the quality of their work.
That’s not all that they get access to when learning online.
Access to accurate information at any moment
In this line of work, professionals often need to fill out reports, send out forms and communicate with patients and other health care professionals. This must be done accurately and conform to the laws and regulations set by different governments and acts.
For example, those who create and fill out forms and send out medical documentation in California need to be well aware of the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) regulations since breaking them can result in big penalties and legal troubles.
One of the perks of doing these things online as a doctor is that students receive access to unlimited information whenever they need it. While the future doctor is prepping for the many forms they’ll need to fill and the reports they’ll need to send out, data like these regulations are at their fingertips.
Hands-on practice without live patients
The old ways of treating patients, exploring the human body and learning how to become a doctor are now replaced with technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and more. Patient safety remains at the forefront, so practicing or training on live patients is often linked to ethical issues. Nowadays, even learning on cadavers can be cause for scrutiny, especially if the need for it can be replaced with the help of technology.
Societal expectations have changed a lot in the last few decades. The long-standing methods for teaching such as “see one, do one and teach one” are not at all acceptable these days. Right now, many of the things that doctors need to practice learning cannot be done on actual humans and doing this online is one of the best ways to train them.
Learning in the medical world is now highly reliant on technology simulators and tools that facilitate the process. This doesn’t just help the learning process, but it also makes the actual health care more effective.
Many of the procedures in health care these days are done with the help of modern technology, such as robots, AI-enabled tools and VR workshops. Medical professionals these days have access to amazing tools that provide them with realistic, hands-on practice without having to make procedures or have interactions with patients.
Interactive learning opportunities
Online learning in the medical world is now dependent and focused on advanced technology. Very often, doctors learn to become better at their job by using a variety of innovative gadgets and tools. This can provide a hands-on approach that can make learning more engaging and memorable for learners.
Nowadays, future doctors can be taught in flipped classrooms with a blended learning experience that can include virtual learning with videos and podcasts, gamified learning with videogames and immersive learning with VR or integrated simulators and wearable devices.
Even though this is one of the best practices and perks of online learning, many countries around the world, as well as their educational systems, lack the technology to provide to their future doctors.
This is most prominent in low-income countries. There’s a serious lack of health and educational technology (EdTech) opportunities in developing countries. Even though online learning provides an opportunity to further build very necessary medical skills, there’s not an abundance of options and opportunities for medical students in many places across the world.
It’s not just that people in different corners of the world don’t have access to tons of educational material and tools to learn online. It’s also about their limited access to quality internet, which prevents them to enjoy the perks these technologies offer. A study by McKinsey shows that 4.4 billion people in 20 countries in the world are not connected to the internet today.
Many of these have the potential to become great future doctors, but the world is yet to offer them opportunities for professional growth in this career.
Easier and more accurate documentation
Reports and forms aren’t the only things that future doctors must train on. In many educational systems, doctors are still taught the old ways of documenting doctor visits, patient files and so forth. Modern hospitals of today, however, have gone digital.
The changing environment of health care around the globe has necessitated the option to provide care faster, especially since the pandemic. Today’s doctors to make changes in documentation rapidly and without errors as well as get access to patient data instantaneously.
This requires that all changes are made digitally so that everyone has access to health knowledge, as well as medical records. Yes, this is a practice that’s used in many parts of the world today, but we are yet to get to a day where the medical records of patients will be accessible in all parts of the world.
Since we are slowly moving in that direction, the future of health care needs to prioritize learning how to use technology for documentation.
Looking Ahead
Health care training is changing rapidly, and it’s influenced by a variety of factors. How the world practices medicine and how new doctors are trained are almost entirely different from what it was just a decade ago.
Thanks to technology, future doctors have amazing access to practical learning, an endless pool of useful information and great tools to facilitate and optimize their work. As online learning is getting more immersed in health care education, we can expect these practices to become more accepted around the world.
