A New Way to Train and Support the World's Health Workers

World health remains problematic. To promote improved public health as part of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for “more direct investment in the training and support of health workers.[1]” WHO believes that bridging the digital divide can be one way to do so.

The Internet already provides many extraordinary electronic learning resources in the health sciences. The WHO recently reviewed many surveys of health scientists in developing countries to determine what they believed was next needed. Sources included 1200 researchers, policy makers, and health professionals in India; a consortium of 14 East African colleges of nursing; public health professionals from 8 Eastern European and former Soviet countries; and educators and librarians in India and 37 African and Caribbean countries.

They found widespread serious interest in aggregating a collection of a broad array of high-quality, relevant, and timely information on both clinical and public health topics, especially preventable chronic and infectious diseases. Considering media of most value, while print materials and textbooks were considered the current educational standard, it was clear that print's limitations were substantial, including cost, distribution, difficulty with updating, and availability.

Happily, as of this week, we can announce a new resource that addresses many of these issues: Health Sciences Online. By clicking www.hso.info[2] you will find, thanks to our many collaborators, a virtual health sciences learning center that provides thousands of carefully selected courses, references, textbooks, guidelines, streaming videos – really any kind of “learning object” you want – to learn about every major topic in medicine and public health for free. And, we're now rounding out our collections in nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, kinesiology, and other health sciences, too.

We hope that this will be a useful addition to the many efforts addressing the UN Development Goals and bridging the international digital divide. So come have a look and tell us if you find it useful.

That's my opinion. I'm Dr. Erica Frank, Professor and Canada Research Chair, at the University of British Columbia, and Founder and Executive Director of Health Sciences Online.