Poster
# 5
Poster |
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6th Internet World Congress for Biomedical Sciences |
G. Reid(1), J.D. Denstedt(2), S. Das(3), R. deVere White(4), G. Brock(5), C. Evans(6), G. McLorie(7), J. Parker(8)
(1)(5)Lawson Research Institute - London. Canada
(2)University of Western Ontario - London. Canada
(3)(4)(6)University of California, Davis School of Medicine - Sacramento. United States
(7)University of Toronto - Toronto. Canada
(8)Axia Health - Calgary. Canada
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[Health Informatics] |
[Urology] |
The Global Center for Knowledge in Urology is being developed to address issues addressed thus far, namely:
Through computer and IP-based technologies, hereafter referred to as netmedia, the mandate of GCKU is to bring together the global Urology community to engage in career-long learning, contribute to development of an international standard of Urology CME and preserve the integrity of netmedia-based learning.
The basic components of the Global Center for Knowledge model are depicted in the diagram below:
Figure 1. Global Center for Knowledge Model
The Global Center for Knowledge (GCK) is surrounded by those with vested interests in a given domain of learning, each serving an important function to guarantee success and longevity of the center: Knowledge Experts, Global Benefactors, Learners and Commercial Interests.
Knowledge experts are affiliated with a world recognized health care institution and are known for their contributions and expertise in a given health care discipline. Learners comprise a global community of specialists who share a common and ongoing need to learn. Learners access a GCK through annual subscription fees that help defray development costs and enable ongoing improvement and refinement of modules. Further, learners are motivated to learn and, in a growing number of instances, must provide ongoing evidence of continuing health care education to their organizing bodies and professional associations.
Global benefactors consist of noncommercial professional associations, state and federal level ministries and departments of health and global organizations all of which have a vested interest in making the knowledge within a GCK available to their respective health care professionals. Such benefactors provide a GCK to their health care professionals free of charge through licensing of content.
Finally, commercial interests represent the commercial health care industry which provide products and services to the group of learners within the GCK. Commercial interests do not fund development of the GCK but do play an important role is globally distributing the program once complete.
The GCK itself is comprised of a number of netmedia modules, each comprised of teacher-centered and student-centered learning technologies and strategies and each focusing on a given subspecialty within a domain of learning. Knowledge experts provide "raw content" to the center on an ongoing basis as their contribution of module development.
This raw content is then modified by "expert translators", experts in netmedia-based curriculum design and distance education, who carefully construct content structures for each module and then apply optimal learning strategies to the content. In doing so, each module is comprised of integrated print, CD-ROM and Internet technologies with the identical content structure applied to each of these three components. In addition, each module is developed free of third party influence and, as such, offer authoritative, timely and unbiased knowledge and learning.
Both print and CD-ROM components of an integrated module represent the fundamental standards of knowledgeable and competent clinical practice. The print component is comprised of high resolution images and concise text while the CD-ROM component is comprised of high bandwidth content including video, audio, high resolution images and text. Once this standard is created, the Internet is used to expand upon fundamental understanding through scheduled publishing of content that follows the content structure of the module.
This process of "dynamic publishing" is facilitated by three basic IP-based technologies that enable posting, discussion and rigorous testing of understanding of new content. Further, given that dynamic publishing follows the content structure of a module thereby enabling a predetermined publication schedule, knowledge experts know their publishing obligations for a GCK well in advance and, similarly, learners can schedule focused learning sessions one or more years in advance.
Both development and distribution of digital content and web server hosting, maintenance and upgrading are undertaken by our development partner that shares our mandate of providing global communities of learners with authoritative, timely and unbiased knowledge and learning. These ongoing duties require extensive resources which go beyond our capacity and include expert translators, application programming, computer and IP systems management, creative design, business management, marketing and sales.
Accreditation for continuing medical education is sought during development of each module through national and international accrediting bodies including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the European Union of Medical Specialists. The standards these accrediting bodies apply to the modules of a GCK insure that each module reflects learner input, is developed by a knowledgeable planning committee, has clearly defined learning objectives, incorporates teacher-centered and student-centered learning activities, enables learner-to-learner and learner-to-expert interaction and provides learners with opportunities to evaluate understanding through testing and feedback.
When applied to Urology, the GCK model takes the current configuration as depicted in the diagram below:
Figure 2. The Global Center for Knowledge in Urology – GCKU
At the present time, we are focusing our efforts on release of Endourology schedule for March 2000 and development of Erectile Dysfunction, the second of many Urology modules within the GCKN. Other modules to be developed for the GCKU include Uro-oncology, Benign Prostatic Hypertropy (BPH), Reconstructive Surgery, Pediatric Urology, Female Urology and Urodynamics.
Accreditation for Endourology for 16 category 1 credits has been awarded by both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as well as the European Board of Urology, the Urology association arm of the European Union of Medical Specialists.
While a print component of the program is made available for each module created within the GCKU, the interactive component (CD-ROM and Internet) does require both computer hardware and connectivity to IP-based networks. While every indication that exponential growth of global access to such equipment will continue, there are, unquestionably, those within the global community of urologists who have yet to access these digital technologies. Further, there is reason to believe that, in some regions of the world, such access will require assistance from ministries and departments of health (125).
In addition, development, maintenance and refinement of the GCKU require considerable resources which, in total, often exceed those available in most education and health care facilities. Accordingly, institutions that wish to make a meaningful impact on global standards of practice will find there is need to turn to the private sector for these resources. This requires that institutions have the necessary business and legal experience to competently seek out and establish agreements with the business community.
Finally, while the GCKU attempts to combine the best of both teacher-centered and student-centered approaches to learning, there is no evidence to suggest that such a combination within the netmedia context will have a beneficial and long-term effect of standard of urologic clinical practice. However, we intend to evaluate very closely short- and long-term impact of this method of disseminating knowledge.
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[Health Informatics] |
[Urology] |
