Ongoing medical education is critical to healthcare professionals in clinical and research settings alike to ensure they remain current on the state-of-the-art in order to deliver the best care to patients. Medical communications is the communication of scientific, medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology information and data to various audiences. This information includes updates on the latest discoveries within a given disease area, as well as dissemination of data generated through clinical trials and health economic and outcomes research.
The whole reason medical education is critical in health care (starting in the 1970s) is that it’s an ever-evolving field. With new technologies and developments comes new information. Health care professionals now know more than their counterparts in the 1970s because of all the research and technology that has sparked the industry’s progression. By continuing your education, you’re staying current in your field.
With the escalating pressures on hospitals, health care facilities, and practitioners to be cost-effective, it is increasingly difficult to justify spending money on education and training. Education and training are expensive when adding together the costs of curriculum development and educators. While finding the right person for the job is important in getting the job done, most, if not all, management would agree that the “right” person includes appropriate education, in addition to other factors like experience and the individual’s personality and character. Even though they recognize the importance of appropriate education in terms of degrees and licenses, continuing education is often forgotten. While some professions require continued education to meet licensing laws or maintain memberships in academic associations, such as physicians who require CME and periodic re-certification exams, not all professions have these requirements. And even then, state requirements differ, and the level of knowledge gained from each educational activity varies.
Even though 75% of CEOs worldwide say that a skilled, educated, and adaptable workforce should be a government/business priority, there’s a growing lack of experienced and well-trained staff in the healthcare environment in many regions around the globe. To counter this trend, there’s a need to raise awareness that education doesn’t come to an end once people are in the middle of their professional career. Because the healthcare industry is continuously evolving, technologies considered best practice today can change drastically in just the span of a decade.
