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Traditionally, health professionals had to attend Continuous Medical Education (CME) classes in physical locations to upgrade their skills. Now, they can do it from comfort of their offices, with the click of a button.
However, creating awareness among experienced health professionals about the importance of online upskilling is the biggest challenge, according to Medvarsity, an ed-tech start-up catering to healthcare professionals.
“Interestingly, the notion is that the more senior the doctor is, the better he/she would be. However, there are chances that senior doctors might be practising older methodologies. So, the mindset for upskilling has to grow,” said Gerald Jaideep, CEO, Medvarsity.
The platform offers online clinical and non-clinical courses to healthcare professionals that help them upgrade their clinical, management and leadership skills. The courses range from three to 24 months, covering fields such as emergency medicine, cardiology and infectious diseases.
Of the people who take up the clinical upskilling programme at Medvarsity, less than 5 per cent are above the age of 35 years, said Jaideep.
Around 18,000 professionals have been certified since 2016, when the company was launched. “Our vision is to impact healthcare through education. In India, there are an estimated six lakh practising doctors and only 18,000 have been upskilled by us, so definitely there is a huge potential,” he added.
Global expansion
The self-funded start-up is also expanding its reach in the international market. It recently launched certificate programmes for healthcare professionals in Africa besides West Asia and South-East Asia. The programmes have been customised for the respective markets, said Jaideep.
According to the first edition of the Future Health Index by Royal Philips, a global healthcare technology firm, there are 29 skilled healthcare professionals for 10,000 people in India, which is way below the global average of 109. Among the 16 countries that took part in the survey, India scored the least.
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