As we reflect on the past quarter, we invite you to journey back to the challenging moments of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this unprecedented time, our commitment to rapid and effective education played a crucial role in influencing health outcomes. Our efforts in developing and disseminating a massive open online course to train healthcare providers around the world set a new standard for sharing vital information during health crises. We continue to build on this foundation and are excited to share a new publication that summarizes the insights we gained from this experience.

Even as we navigate post-pandemic challenges, we are still witnessing significant downstream effects, such as declines in routine immunization adherence and an escalating mental health crisis. At Digital Medic, we are dedicated to addressing high-impact health needs that our communities have identified as pressing challenges. For example, we are pleased to announce the launch of new educational videos focusing on routine immunization and HPV, with more resources under development to tackle these critical health emergencies.

We invite you to join us for our upcoming Digital Health Week webinar on November 6, 2024. This event will highlight our innovative strategies to enhance HPV and childhood vaccination rates in collaboration with our partners in Guatemala. Following the presentation, we will hold an interactive Q&A session, and we would love for you to be part of this engaging discussion.

Thank you for your unwavering support and for being an integral part of our global community. 

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) can be a valuable way of disseminating critical training and evolving guidelines to healthcare workers during health emergencies. However, the vast majority of MOOCs have been designed for, and used by, learners in North America and Europe. Very little published literature has reported on MOOCs designed for the training of healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries, despite their significant potential impact in this space.

Between July and September 2020:

1. 30,859 students enrolled in the course, with 7,101 also completing the course in this period.
2. We found that most participants worked in healthcare (78%) and resided in lower middle- or upper middle-income countries.
3. Overall, course participants demonstrated significant improvement in knowledge and reported substantial improvements in confidence in caring for COVID-19 patients upon course completion.
   
4. Most participants (93%) would recommend the course to others. 

This research shows that MOOCs can effectively reach healthcare workers in high-income and middle-income countries and provide timely clinical training during a healthcare crisis. The newly published paper explains our process, findings, and implications for future health crises. 

We have a collection of newly available videos on HPV and routine immunization education. These videos were created as part of a research project with Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq and the University of California San Francisco’s Institute for Global Health Sciences. Designed with health workers and community members in Guatemala, the videos have been used as part of an intervention to boost vaccination rates, particularly among Indigenous communities.

Many more research and health education projects are underway. Stay tuned for more Quarterly Updates to learn the latest in community health education.