E-Learning for Continuing Health Education Prof. Žilvinas Padaiga Marius Strička, MPH

Background  Compulsory continuing education  200 hours within 5 years  120 hours should be provided in accredited institutions  Way of financing  Ministry of Health  Health care institutions  Participants  Number of courses financed by MoH Year 1998/99Year 2000/ participants1860 participants

Needs assessment  Survey on Continuing health education and E-Learning of professionals in State Public Health Service (543 respondents)  Respond the need to improve qualification 94.7%  Satisfies with current potential for DL18.4%  Wish to study at a distance48.5%  Potential (39.6% has no attitude towards E-Learning)

Potentiality for E-Learning  Survey on IT development in State Public Health Service (14 Public Health Centers)  34 computers per 100 employees  Specialized centers 41/100  Regional Public Health Centers12/100  All centers use Internet

Internet access

IT accessibility and computer literacy  Use computer at work or home67.2%  Has computer at home35.5%  Has an address56.5%  Most of respondents work with MS Word, Excel and Internet browsers  Computer literacy is associated with age, educational status and residence

Telemedicine  Telemedicine center at KUM was established in 2002  Main activities:  Videoconferencing  Teleconsultations  E-Learning  Projects:  Litmed (  Telemedicare  Virtual Atlas of Eye Pathology (In collaboration with Biomedical Engineering Institute at Kaunas University of Technology) (In collaboration with Biomedical Engineering Institute at Kaunas University of Technology)

Public Health Distance Learning Network (  Joint project between educational and professional institutions  Project mission:  To built partnerships for Distance Learning and to develop Public Health Internet portal  Activities:  Internet pages on Public Health topics  Reports on Public Health issues  Educational material and E-Learning courses

E-Learning  Target audience:  Undergraduate and postgraduate students (educational material)  Health professionals (E-Learning courses)  Support system:  Course development tool “CourseDev 1.0”  Extensive training for course developers