By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 2025
    The Hidden Impact Of Stress On Your Body’s Alignment And Balance
    May 22, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    narrow-road-ahead-sign
    Narrow Networks in California?
    March 24, 2016
    Insurer Has E-Security Problem
    August 26, 2017
    What Kind of Inequality Matters to You?
    October 19, 2011
    Latest News
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
    Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
    June 25, 2025
    When Healthcare Ends, the Legal Process Begins: What Families Should Know About Probate and Medical Estates
    June 20, 2025
    Preventing Contamination In Healthcare Facilities Starts With Hygiene
    June 15, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: When 35,000 Healthcare Professionals “Learn” in 35,000 Different Ways…
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Medical Education > When 35,000 Healthcare Professionals “Learn” in 35,000 Different Ways…
Medical Education

When 35,000 Healthcare Professionals “Learn” in 35,000 Different Ways…

BrianSMcGowan
BrianSMcGowan
Share
7 Min Read
SHARE

I had a great opportunity to skype in to give a brief talk on Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.

I had a great opportunity to skype in to give a brief talk on Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting. My topic was on how oncologists are using social media and new technology as an element of their lifelong learning, and I was able to present some recent research on what I have referred to as the ‘meaningful use of social media.’ Much of the data that I presented was a deeper dive into my presentation given last year at medicine2.0.

As our question and answer session unfolded the topic of using QR codes on posters was being bounced around and a few folks made suggestions about how posters could be shared more effectively by allowing attendees to scan these codes with the added benefit of minimizing crowds and allowing the data from more research to be aggregated more quickly. While the use of QR codes to support these efforts likely deserves a post of its own, I was able to explore a different angle on the discussion, and I would love to share this line of thinking.

I have written in-depth about how the data stream from major medical meetings needs to be re-engineered to drive dissemination of new findings and best practices much more effectively. This is a central passion of mine and I currently have the pleasure of working with a few medical associations and societies to explore these ideas – hopefully we will have some pilot models in the next year. But there is another side to this re-engineering that may be even more important to supporting lifelong learning and driving higher quality healthcare.

More Read

An iPhone App for Medical Checklists?
Who is responsible for patient engagement within pharma?
The Challenges of Treating Homeless Patients
“Social Media Residency”: Essential for Tomorrow’s Physicians
The Cookie-Cutter Medicine Fallacy

To introduce the idea, I need to present the problem: At this year’s ASCO meeting there are more than 35,000 healthcare professionals from around the world converging on Chicago to share and learn about the latest and greatest advance in oncology care — but each attendee is entirely on their own to craft a ‘data aggregation & retention’ plan from the various session they attend, sessions the missed, posters they passed by, and hallway conversations they had. It seems safe to say that there are close to 35,000 separate approaches being employed to archive lessons, commit them to memory, or build a repository (of post-it notes or journal entries) that attendees can call upon when needed. I like to say that there are 35,000 separate jerry-rigged content architectures being put into action by attendees at ASCO and (IMO) few, if any, of them would be found to be successful if put to the test.

So how do you tackle this problem yourself when attending a meeting. Where/how do you take your notes? When (if ever) do you revisit them? Are you prepared to employ new lessons in practice? Have your notes ever actively supported your learning? (this last one might take a second to sink in…)

By an educated guess, the annual ASCO meeting costs $8-10 million dollars to develop and implement. The costs of learners to attend and travel is somewhere in the ball park of $100,000,000 (I double checked my math). And yet there is no evidence-based, engineered platform to support the learning of those in attendance. Simply put, this is a really bad model. This is bad for the researchers trying to share their data, much of which will soon be forgotten. This is bad for attendees who are spending money and time to leave practice to absorb the newest lesson in care, but attendees find themselves already saturated and often miss out on the most important stuff. And, this is bad for patients from around the world who are dependent on having the late-breaking, potentially life-saving lessons brought back and integrated into practice…could this need be anymore urgent?

Having focused my career for the past 10 years on improving medical education, the reality is that it is not always easy to connect learning theory back to the big picture…but this is not one of those times. The lack of a re-engineered system that provides the end-user control of their learning wastes $100,000,000′s of dollars and millions of professional hours…and I for one do not think it is an overstatement to suggest that our ‘broken and fragmented’ system of professional lifelong learning very likely costs us of thousands of patient lives each year.

(And this is just ASCO, I could have written this post about Digestive Disease Week (DDW) last week or American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in March – the reality is that each of the numbers above could be multiplied 10 times over and still be a conservative understatement.)

Perhaps this is the first time you have pondered the complexity of this system. And, perhaps this is the first time the flaws have been made so transparent. But spending more time and more money on more research, more Powerpoint slides, and more posters will continue to be a low gain investment. It is a critical time to begin to conceive a re-engineered solution that makes new content and best practice lessons truly available to learners AND gives the learners effective control of this information flow in ways that support their learning and practice.

All the best,

Brian

 

 

TAGGED:learning
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

9 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Add Years to Your Life
9 Healthcare Lifestyle Tweaks That can Add Years to Your Life
lifestyle
July 11, 2025
car accident lawsuit
Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
Policy & Law
July 6, 2025
women dental care
What Is a Smile Makeover and How Much Does It Cost?
Dental health
June 30, 2025
HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps
Top HIPAA-Compliant Messaging Apps for Healthcare Teams
Global Healthcare Policy & Law Technology
June 25, 2025

You Might also Like

Medical Education

Your daughter painted on the dining room wall….

May 24, 2011

Making The Decision To Outsource And Choosing The Right IRO Partner

October 19, 2015

How Physician Offices Can Improve Patient Health Care

March 31, 2016
bullying healthcare
Hospital AdministrationMedical EducationPolicy & Law

Culture of Disrespect in Medicine Affects Patient Safety

July 27, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?