COVID-19 – Delivering a pandemic of change to digital medical education

As the world of medicine continues to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians are moving to digital solutions. Adrian Duncan dives into research into the power of digital communication to see how they could be most effectively used to improve public health.

Even as some locations move forward in their reopening plans, the shift to digital events and virtual education options are expected to continue far into the future. The move to digital by clinicians looks more than temporary – 93% of physicians expect to use digital tools for clinical-decision support, and 90% of clinicians expect to use digital learning solutions to the same or a greater extent even after the COVID-19 crisis passes.¹

A major change in the medical community has been the transformation of live conferences and events into virtual events. A majority of physicians (60%) expect that they will not attend live meetings for more than one year, and 64% of physicians say they are likely to participate in an online version of a national meeting.²

While this switch presents a change to how clinicians are accustomed to learning and staying current on practice guidelines, there are new opportunities realised with the shift to virtual conferences. With virtual, many of the barriers that clinicians faced with conference attendance — cost, travel, time away from practice — are less of a factor in participation. Virtual events provide an increased level of convenience and accessibility.

• Read the full article in pharmaphorum's Deep Dive digital magazine