E-health and E-learning

Resource generation

The growth of e-health services has given rise to the need for a new breed of healthcare professionals, healthcare administrators and healthcare technologists.

This industry needs people who can understand any two of healthcare, business and technology. Historically the healthcare industry has been the last adopter of technology, the same has been the case with healthcare education. Even till today, many of the medical, dental, nursing, pharmacology and other healthcare degrees do not have courses on information technology; ecommerce is only a far cry from reality. Courses in hospital and health administration have increased in the last 5 years or so.

When the e-health services industry started about 3 year ago, companies relied heavily on people already employed by hospitals and on people employed by other similar companies. The industry has grown to such a size that people from non-healthcare backgrounds are being recruited and trained. Interestingly, a lot of youngsters with traditional healthcare degrees such as MBBS and BDS are exploring career options in healthcare administration.

The irony of this trend is that the need for basic healthcare facilities in rural areas is going to get even worse than it currently is. As technology is pervading more into our education system, learning is becoming “anywhere and anytime”.

E-learning enables students to study and appear for exams at their convenience from any place they want to, as long as they have a good internet connection. Some forward thinking companies such as Medvarsity have started offering healthcare courses to healthcare students and practitioners. It is helping medical students to prepare for higher studies through online courses.

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