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Learning Management System (LMS) Software in Healthcare

The tremendous development in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has paved the way for e-learning. The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. This brings us great learning opportunities by having access to large amount of information with benefits in terms of time and cost savings. A learning management system (LMS) is the software application that facilitates e-learning. .

 

Learning management system (LMS)

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application or web-based technology used to plan, implement and assess a specific learning process.  LMS software application is used for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials, or learning, and development programs.

 

Features offered by LMS include user management, content management, activity tracking, file
storage, storing of grades, reports generation, and communication tools (chatting, forums, discussion groups, email, teleconferencing, and so on)

 

An LMS delivers and manages all types of content, including video, courses, workshops and documents. The teacher can add, text, images, videos, pdfs, tables, links and text formatting, interactive tests, slideshows etc. Moreover, they can create different types of users, such as teachers, students, parents, visitors and editors (hierarchies). It helps control which content a student can access, track studying progress and engage student with contact tools. Teachers can manage courses and modules, enroll students or set up self-enrollment.

 

Through an LMS, teachers may create and integrate course materials, articulate learning goals, align content and assessments, track studying progress, and create customized tests for students. An LMS allows the communication of learning objectives and organizes learning timelines. Instructors use authoring and publishing tools to create and publish learning contents. Courses are made more interesting and easy to understand with the help of enriched multimedia examples.

 

The environment offer collaborative learning by assigning tasks to students, making assessments, assignment of grades, active participation with synchronous or asynchronous communication tools, such as chatting, discussion groups, forums, email, video conferencing, and so on

 

Various commercial, as well as open-source LMSs, are available today and are being used in educational institutions. Learning management systems have faced a massive growth in usage due to the emphasis on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

LMS Resources

An LMS can be either hosted locally or by a vendor. A vendor-hosted cloud system tends to follow a SaaS (software as a service) model.  An LMS that is locally hosted sees all data pertaining to the LMS hosted internally on the users′ internal servers. Locally hosted LMS software will often be open-source, meaning users will acquire (either through payment or free of charge) the LMS software and its code. With this, the user is able to modify and maintain the software through an internal team.

 

The main components of resource center are LMS server, LMS application, content development team and administrator. The LMS server consists of necessary hardware and software
to process requests and delivers content to clients through Internet.

 

Open-source provides flexibility, which is not available in closed products. There are a number of open-source LMS tools available, such as ATutor, Chamilo, Moodle, eFront, Claroline, Sakai and Bodington.

 

All data in a vendor-hosted system is housed by the supplier and accessed by users through the internet, on a computer or mobile device.  Individuals and smaller organizations tend to stick with cloud-based systems due to the cost of internal hosting and maintenance. Vendor-hosted systems are typically easier to use and require less technical expertise.

 

Healthcare LMS

Healthcare Industry keeps growing with continuous medical advancements and evolutions. Doctors and healthcare practitioners must stay updated about Emerging technologies, new equipment, treatment methodologies and techniques, medicines and drugs, etc.,  They continuously need to go through training to gain knowledge about the new medical tools and equipment and other treatment methodologies and learn their use so that they may incorporate them into their practice and enhance the experiences for their patients.

 

A learning management system (LMS primary) goal is to help healthcare organizations improve patient care by keeping personnel up to date on medical best practices and equipping them with relevant skills.

 

On the other hand, the need to update and expand knowledge of complicated medical terminologies is continually growing, so effective healthcare must have a well-functioning LMS platform that can help to manage the onboarding of new employees or doctors, foster talent development, and provide soft skills training for nurses, pharmaceuticals, physicians, and others who deal with patients, as well as must have the ability to provide training on proficient in the use of new equipment, managing chronic conditions, and preventative care on a daily basis.

 

Additionally, medical laws in various countries set forth mandatory training requirements to be undergone and completed by healthcare practitioners at regular intervals so as to keep their status as practicing healthcare professional active. 

 

However, with the number of patients coming in and out of the healthcare clinics and medical facilities, doctors and healthcare practitioners run a hectic schedule and it is difficult for them to spare time for undergoing the trainings, especially if they are under the traditional classroom teaching setting. E-learning has given an effective and efficient solution to this barrier in learning for the healthcare professionals.

 

A Healthcare LMS is an e-learning solution focused on the healthcare industry providing medical courses and training for the skill development of medical and healthcare professionals and helping them meet their training requirements with ease and convenience.

 

Healthcare LMS platforms enable medical organizations and institutions to provide continued education, training, and accreditation to their employees in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Healthcare professionals leverage a healthcare LMS to keep up with changing healthcare guidelines, evolving medical technology, and updated standards and procedures.

 

Holistic learning is a blend of best teaching methods and regular feedback to recognize weaknesses and offer opportunities to improve. A healthcare learning management system helps in evaluating each learner’s capabilities, tracking their progress, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and giving them feedback. This opens room for continuous learning and improvement.

 

Healthcare LMS platforms automate the certification process. Additionally, healthcare LMS platforms can be accessed on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices. This enables healthcare professionals to take CE courses and other mandatory training at their own pace anytime, and anywhere 24/7.  Healthcare LMS platforms keep track of continuing medical education credits of healthcare workers and can connect to accrediting body databases that store credentialing information of healthcare professionals.

 

A healthcare learning management system allows the organizations to track various statistics like prices, costs, safety, care, and other data for care improvement. This opens doors to improved facilities and improved decisions by professionals. Besides keeping records of patients, it also helps in tracking healthcare professionals and assessing their capabilities.

 

While learning management systems enable healthcare providers to offer high-quality care and services, these systems educate patients regarding treatment, various therapies, etc.  For example,  A patient may be required to attend an online diabetes management course or a post-surgery care course. A healthcare LMS can create courses like this using LMS content production tools, allowing patients to care for themselves. These courses can also be purchased from a third-party provider by healthcare organizations. Another advantage of a learning management system is that it allows patients to access their medical records online.

 

Some of the most common courses of healthcare learning management systems particularly in developed regions include preventive care course, cultural sensitivity course, discharge process reformation, and patient education and treatment adherence.

 

Players operating in the current healthcare learning management system market landscape are increasingly focusing on improving their offerings and making design improvements to their courses to gain a competitive edge. A number of medical associations around the world is increasingly turning toward healthcare learning management systems to educate their staff and personnel regarding the evolving regulatory landscape and trends across the healthcare sector. For instance, the nurse association in several parts of developed regions, including North America is increasingly relying on healthcare learning management systems to improve clinical education. The American Nurses Association is among the most prominent associations around the world that has integrated the existing information systems into a compact healthcare learning management system to create a customized learning experience.

 

Healthcare Learning Management System Features

With the use of Learning Management Systems, healthcare and medical practitioners can easily enroll for online training and courses and take them at their comfort and convenience from any place, at any time, and through any device. Healthcare LMS come as a cost-efficient solution by eliminating the need for hardware. With the audio and video features, healthcare LMS provide excellent visual and practical learning experiences without any investments in tools and equipment or need for setting up infrastructure.

First and most importantly, you need to assess what your training needs actually are. If you are not clear about what needs to be taught, what skills need to be introduced in the training session or what current market trends need focus.

 

User Friendly: Healthcare LMS needs to be designed with a easy to understand and simple user interface, keeping user-friendliness in mind to provide exceptional learning experiences through easier understanding of the platform and application. If the user is able to interact efficiently with the LMS, he or she will access the learning content easily and will be more compliant in undertaking the training. Easy accessibility to learning materials, automatic options for suggesting additional learning programs depending on the competencies and preferences of the learner, and other related features will create an engaging learning environment.

Customizable: LMS needs to be up to date on required skills, certifications, competency and performance. In addition, Healthcare LMS software needs to be highly customizable features and functionalities to provide personalized experiences.

Integration: The integration of LMS with the healthcare organizations and their systems is very important. For instance, the learning management system must be able to integrate with medical as well as patient databases. Experts recommend that apart from just the look and feel, the LMS should also be tailor-made to match the complex hierarchies in your organization. The workflows and the integration of other systems in LMS should also be customizable. It is worth paying close attention to APIs and other technologies which enable integration. You can also look for third-party integrations which will allow the training or learning to be used across different departments.

Scalability: Scalability is an important factor to be kept in mind while choosing an LMS. As healthcare organizations can be massive in size, the LMS must have the ability to scale, no matter how many learners join the training program. Scaling should not compromise training efficiency in any manner and should be able to sustain proper integration with the organizations and their systems using it.

Responsive: Healthcare LMS needs to be designed with responsive and mobile-friendly features to provide convenience in taking courses via any device with the same experiences. Through mobile functionality, the users will be able to access the training material from anywhere at any time. In today’s fast-paced world, you’ll want to be assured that your employees are gaining the benefit of training on-the-go.

Training Delivery: Audio and Video Conferencing:  The learning materials should be readily available in text, audio, video, PDF and PPT format. Audio and video conferencing features for live classes, sessions, and video tutorials and training, to provide more visual experiences.

Security & Privacy of your LMS: In healthcare, data security is one of higher importance. Having an eLearning partner that understands the unique challenges facing the healthcare industry regarding maintaining Security & Privacy. Companies in the healthcare industry need a secure platform to ensure the confidentiality of patient information, protect data and training records while successfully supporting healthcare compliance and training because violations can be expensive to manage. For example: Employees may not realize that they are at risk of violating patients or even employee information when they use mobile devices, texting, or social media to communicate information. A data leak can damage the reputation of both doctors and their patients.

HIPAA Compliant: So, an updated, strong secured training platform in LMS is must have complied with the region-based Healthcare security & privacy act. Such as -Most non-EU, US & Asia pacific region countries have different laws for information security and privacy in healthcare that are close to the HIPAA, GDPR & GxP.  The next generation LMS you choose should  comply with HIPPA and 21 CFR Part 11 regulation. Strong compliance management features, including nudges and alerts for both learners and administrators, to help everyone become and stay compliant

User Dashboard: Healthcare LMS should have feature rich user dashboard which keeps record of the courses enrolled and taken and detailed analytics and reports to track progress and make improvements. It needs to be very pro-active. It should make use of predictive analytics to highlight potential compliance issues and determine skills shortage or talent gap based on evaluating data sets.

 

LMS Market

According to The LMS for Healthcare market report, the market is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 24.7% from 2021 to 2026. The global healthcare learning management system market will surpass the US$ 3.5 Bn mark by the end of 2030.

 

The demand for healthcare learning management systems is on the rise, due to benefits including ease of learning from any location, inclusion of a wide range of courses related to healthcare, training modules that can be designed in accordance with ongoing and upcoming trends, and self-assessment tools to determine the progress. For several years, the educational sector has remained at the forefront regarding adopting learning management systems. However, the trend is gradually changing, as the healthcare sector is steadily emerging as one of the most prominent end-use industries. The healthcare learning management system market continues to grow among patients and healthcare providers worldwide.

 

Furthermore, increased mobility in learning, adoption of social media, and lining up of learning programs with business objectives are expected to propel the demand for healthcare learning management systems in the near future. For instance, the American Nurses Association (ANA) uses learning management systems to boost clinical education. Hence, rise in adoption of digitalized learning solutions and significant investments by market players are expected to fuel the growth of the healthcare learning management system market. However, lack of self-motivation among learners due to non-availability of instructors, poor Internet connectivity, and improper management of learning software are anticipated to hinder the healthcare learning management system market

 

Industry

Key providers of healthcare learning management systems, such as Adobe Systems Inc., ADP Inc., GE Healthcare, HealthcareSource HR, Inc., and SAP SE are focusing on the development of cost-effective healthcare learning management systems to attract more customers

Additionally, players active in providing healthcare learning management systems are focusing on inorganic growth strategies such as strategic collaborations and mergers & acquisitions with technology partners to improve their offerings and market reach in the healthcare learning management system market

Key players operating in the global healthcare learning management system market are
Adobe Systems Inc., ADP Inc., Articulate Global, Inc., Canvas Network (Instructure, Inc.), Cerner Corporation,
Elsevier, GE Healthcare, HealthcareSource HR, Inc., HealthStream, Inc., Infor Inc., Oracle Corporation, PeopleFluent, SAP SE, Trivantis Corporation, Absorb LMS Software Inc., Accord LMS, CD2 Learning, CertCentral Inc., CoreAchieve, DLC Solutions, Docebo, Escalla Ltd., EthosCE, Gyrus Systems, InfoPro Learning, Inc., Interactyx (TOPYX), iSpring Solutions Inc., Kallidus Ltd., Litmos, Mindflash, NetDimensions Limited, Paradiso Solutions,
Skillsoft, SkyPrep Inc., Thought Industries, Tovuti, LLC.

 

Some of the key developments in the global healthcare learning management system market:

  • In October 2020, Pathway Health, a learning management system provider, launched Pathway Learning Network, a new learning management system for healthcare or post-acute care providers
  • In July 2020, Apollo Pharmacy introduced myGurukool, a digital learning management system, to enhance the capabilities and skills of its employees
  • In October 2019, Baptist Health, a provider of advanced medical technology, launched technologically advanced healthcare learning management system platforms

 

References and Resources also include:

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/healthcare-learning-management-system-market.html

https://www.gyrus.com/7-useful-tips-to-choose-the-right-learning-management-systems-tor-the-healthcare-industry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system

https://brainstation-23.com/how-to-choose-the-best-lms-for-healthcare-training/

 

 

 

About Rajesh Uppal

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