Free open access medical education can help rural clinicians deliver 'quality care, out there'.
Rural clinicians require expertise across a broad range of specialties, presenting difficulty in maintaining currency of knowledge and application of best practice. Free open access medical education is a new paradigm in continuing professional education. Use of the internet and social media allows a globally accessible crowd-sourced adjunct, providing inline (contextual) and offline (asynchronous) content to augment traditional educational principles and the availability of relevant resources for life-long learning. This markedly reduces knowledge translation (the delay from inception of a new idea to bedside implementation) and allows rural clinicians to further expertise by engaging in discussion of cutting edge concepts with peers worldwide.
Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, Australia. drtim@wrongsideoftheroad.com.au.
Tim J
TJ
Leeuwenburg
Broome Hospital, Broome, Western Australia, Australia. broomedocs@gmail.com.
Casey
C
Parker
D001315:Australia; D020375:Education, Distance; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008490:Medical Informatics; D010820:Physicians; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012423:Rural Health / Q000193:education*; D061108:Social Media; D013192:Staff Development
Australia/Pacific; Continuing Professional Education; Education; Emergency Care; Evidence-based Care; General/Family Practice; Informatics; Medical; Postgraduate