The digitisation of society has reached almost every facet of our daily lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has further showcased the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in society and so much so in continuing medical education (CME). This has provided the CME industry with remarkable opportunities to design better educational programmes and reach more audiences. However, for healthcare professionals to take full advantage of these developments, they need to be digitally competent, at least at a basic level. While digital competence influences CME uptake in the internet age, several factors, in turn, can influence digital competence. These factors come from both within and outside the influence of healthcare professionals and educators. In this article, we explore how digital competence influences CME uptake and recommend ways to improve digital competence among healthcare professionals.
A DiGA is a safe and data-protected interoperable medical device (officially called a "digital health application") of a low-risk class, which has the potential to improve the healthcare system in Germany for patients - with or without the involvement of a physician. It therefore already represents the first component of the envisaged future digitalised healthcare. In order not to promote the emergence of parallel healthcare markets (3rd Healthcare Market), a rapid rethinking is necessary, above all among physicians requiring more expertise and competence regarding digitalisation. Continuing Medical Education (CME) can accompany and accelerate this process and thus contribute to the success of digital healthcare, which offers solutions to current challenges for the benefit of patients.
Disease Management Programmes (DMPs) have been introduced by German Federal Government in 2002 to improve long-term care for patients with specific chronic diseases. Digitisation has been a requirement to reliably document patient data in DMPs. This report presents data from six DMPs in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It demonstrates that high level long-term quality of care can be achieved and maintained. But beyond clinical purposes DMP data are also an invaluable source to supply content in CME.
Short history of digital learning formats in Austria and the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in rapidly changing the learning methods of physicians towards a more digital, diverse spectrum.
At a time when the world continues to be gripped by one of the most significant pandemics in history, medical regulators are understanding, more than ever, the value of effective regulation on the provision of health care locally, nationally and across national borders. It has never been more important for regulators to work together, share experiences and information, and strive for regulatory best practice.
Delivering medical education meetings in person and online presents different challenges, as highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lupus Academy education programme is a decade-old initiative, led by a steering committee of 12 international experts in lupus, with an established following of over 7000 global learners. The COVID-19 pandemic has made educationalists think differently about ways to provide medical education. Early in the pandemic, the Lupus Academy created a new technical platform and scientific programme structure to deliver its education online to its global audience. Many challenges confronted the effective delivery of this education, including video steaming, audience engagement and interaction, and timely delivery of content across multiple time zones. The Lupus Academy adapted well, and its 2020 meeting was a success. The lessons from this meeting helped create a further improved meeting format for 2021, which like 2020 saw over 3000 participants from 101 counties attending. This success was driven by necessity, yet learners still want 'in-person education' . As and when the world opens for travel, a newfound digital literacy will create hybrid programmes that serve both 'in-person meetings' with digital elements, bringing education to a broader audience online at the same time.
With rising numbers of students, shorter hospital stays and increasing workload of academic teachers, teaching time have become a scarce resource. Thus, optimal preparation by teachers is key for good clinical teaching. Though a lot of teaching duties are performed by residents in Germany, they are not likely to have been educated in didactic techniques. We developed and evaluated a mobile teaching application using the "Learning Toolbox (LTB)" platform (Raycom BV, Utrecht, Netherlands) that was offered to academic teachers for preparation and support during curricular courses at our medical school. Courses were part of the curricula in Anaesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, and Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, and course length could vary up to 40 h per week. Information provided by the novel platform included logistic information, learning objectives, and curricula for the individual courses. A basic tutorial on didactic techniques, suggestions for providing feedback and for enhancing students' participation was also part of the platform. After one semester, interviews with teachers indicated an increase in overall satisfaction. Residents appreciated didactic aids and content provided for preparation, leading to higher motivation and self-confidence. The more experienced teachers were particularly satisfied with easy access to scheduling, teaching assignments and daily planning. The app increased teachers' satisfaction with their performance and enabled better integration of teaching in the daily schedule.
Digitisation in the education of future doctors was still in its infancy before the Covid pandemic. For the successful implementation of digital teaching, students need the technical equipment and the necessary skills to use it in a meaningful way. Furthermore, it requires a willingness to adapt the learning environment and to take responsibility for self-directed learning. At the beginning of 2020, faculties were forced to convert all teaching to digital formats. Initial research shows that students prefer face-to-face teaching. To determine whether medical students were prepared for digital studies and what should be considered for the future, we analysed surveys at the beginning of online studies and after two Corona semesters at a medical faculty. We were able to show that although our students had good technology equipment, they had a rather negative attitude towards online teaching for various reasons and developed negative emotions. Deficits in design of educational material, and personal learning habits raised concern. A lack of guidance and a lack of interaction with fellow students contributed to this. Adjustments in these areas will be necessary in the future to provide students with positive access to digital studies and thus increase learning success.

