Making learning for medical professionals more accessible – The Synapse eLearning

Rebekah Cilia The Synapse, a web portal that provides news, services and resources for the medical profession, has launched a new platform for eLearning. The Synapse eLearning platform delivers high-quality video-based continuing medical education.

In 1996, Dr Wilfred Galea along with his team launched this internet service to not only provide news but also developments in the medical field as well as corporate information. In 2001, the need for a printed magazine was identified and subsequently launched.

Galea is a medical doctor and a founder of the Malta College of Family Doctors. As a medical professional, he feels that continuing medical education is essential but more often difficult to obtain due to the long hours doctors work. However, he says that continuing medical education is required to maintain memberships with certain medical associations. He also stresses that a medical professional must keep up with current developments in the ever-expanding field of medicine.

The original idea of eLearning was introduced by Galea in collaboration with the Medical Association of Surgeons in Malta in 2006. Through funds obtained from the EU, three modules were launched. However, he said that funds eventually ran out and perhaps the idea had only attracted early adopters at this point.

eLearning provides several advantages including the ability to watch the video at any time and, more importantly, when the learner is most receptive. Galea insists that they are not reinventing the wheel as such facilities already exist but this is a first for Malta. It allows local professionals in the field to contribute as well as allowing a Maltese perspective to be included in the videos. One such example is a video already available on the web portal about antibiotics. Discussing antibiotics in relation to any other country would be useless since the Maltese demographics about antibiotics are different.

Another benefit of these online videos is the ability to react to a medical crisis, as what happened last year following a report in a local newspaper regarding immuni- sation. The report was issued on a Sunday which created confusion among the medical community the following day. The need to react was essential Galea said, and in the next two days, a video was issued. One other example was the hesitancy by some medical professionals to administer the influenza vaccine. A video was also issued about this topic and a week later, it was used during a lecture at the University of Malta.

From humble beginnings to a service providing a wide outreach in the medical field, The Synapse team decided that the next step was to build a specific eLearning platform. A number of associations and academic groups were approached and asked to contribute their expertise in the field to bridge the knowledge gap. This year will see the launch of several videos concerning infection control, rheumatology, dermatology, psychiatry and surgery.

The Synapse eLearning is free and open to all members of the medical profession. Each session will consist of a 20-minute presentation delivered by key opinion leaders in the clinical and medical field. The user will then have the opportunity to log on to the platform to test their understanding of the subject presented. The user will be required to answer a set of multiple-choice questions which will take 10 minutes to complete. Within 24 hours a certificate of participation can be downloaded which can be used to present to the relevant associations for accreditation purposes.

The Medical Association of Malta and the Malta College of Family Doctors are accrediting 0.5 credits to each video. Internationally, it is standard to apply one credit for each one hour of learning. The Synapse eLearning will provide a long list of videos enabling medical professionals to obtain their required yearly credits.

Galea says that while learning will be easier and more entertaining, it will ultimately be the patient who benefits. He also stressed that this will not compete with cur- rent methods of continuous medical training but complements it.

The current videos available on the web platform have performed remarkably well said Galea, who is completely dedicated to this project. He also mentions some videos that are not presented by medical professionals but by lay people. One such example is a woman who lost her son and decided to donate his organs to people awaiting transplant. She started a campaign called Life After Drew which aims to increase awareness of organ donation and support families going through such traumatic events.