ASIMULATION BASED 'PHYGITAL' EDUCATION MODEL FOR EMPOWERING HCPS TO PROVIDE THE BEST-IN-CLASS CARE

MEDTECH

Asimulation based 'phygital' education model for empowering HCPs to provide the best-in-class care

Dr Amit Garg,Director,Medical & Clinical Affairs and Strategy Planning,Terumo India highlights the importance of providing strong scientific training to healthcare professionals in India

Modern medical technology businesses have introduced several advanced technological products and applications for the healthcare industry. The efficacy of these devices depends greatly on the manual dexterity of the medical professionals using them. It is critical therefore that they are provided hands-on training in the use of the products. For example, if a company supplies an endovascular graft, then it often needs to support the surgeon in the operation room. Similarly, it is important to provide medical devices education and training to ensure that physicians and HCPS gain confidence and competence. This will result in the delivery of high-quality care and improved outcomes.

As a medical technology company whose products are the choice of medical professionals across the globe, Terumo considers it its duty to enable HCPs with the most advanced techniques and practices through its products and their use. Consistent with the company's mission of 'Contributing to society through healthcare', we are committed to providing strong scientific training to HCPs in India, through relevant clinical and educational programmes and thereby enable better patient care.

Traditionally, we have always done these, face to face. We launched the Terumo India Skill Lab (TISL) in February 2018 with the following objectives:

◆ To provide dedicated knowledge & experience sharing facility for HCPs ◆ To provide state-of-the-art simulation on cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology for hands-on practice

Equipped with state-of-theart simulation training facilities, which provide doctors and medical technologists with virtual training of cardiovascular surgery and cardiac intervention, TISL became a great platform to serve the community and advance the standards of care through pioneering academic initiatives.

COVID-19 created the need for rapid digital adoption

TISL was originally designed with an aspiration to achieve scale, but the new realities post

the COVID-19 pandemic meant that we needed to accelerate its implementation.

We started conducting online education sessions, webinars with partners and scientific bodies, and started engaging thousands of KOLs covering various safe cardiovascular procedures.

This 'phygital' version of TISL was launched in September 2020. Designed as a hybrid of physical and digital interfaces, the platform aims to accelerate medical education for cardiovascular healthcare professionals in India. It is designed to include live events, digital colloquium and patient resources covering various topics such as safer cardiovascular.

Procedures, bifurcation, multiple vessel disease, complex PCI, trans-radial intervention, complex CTO and perfusion technology.

TISL intends to democratize the education of interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, and perfusion medicine. Physicians can learn as per their convenience, in their own space and per their time schedule. We have been investing in acquiring high end simulation models and engaging digital content to help HCPs learn new skills and enhance existing competencies. We recently introduced an advanced and unique Beating Heart Model and a Nanto Model. These models will facilitate doctors in building their clinical expertise through a nuanced three-dimensional perspective. The biggest advantage of these models is that certain case scenarios, that are very rare, can be simulated in this setup and in any unfortunate instance where they encounter the same, physician can be much more confident of dealing with potential complications and saving patient's life.

The impact

Coinciding with Terumo Corporation entering its hundredth year since inception, TISL is a fitting tribute to an organiza-

tion whose starting point and unchanging corporate mission has been 'Contributing to Society through Healthcare.' The shift to a 'phygital' model will allow the initiative to exponentially increase its reach and impact.

The TISL platform will allow physicians and allied healthcare professionals the advantage of self-paced learning through a rich bank of meaningful resources including live and recorded webinars, scientific presentations by clinical experts, interactive online resources, interdisciplinary compilations of journal articles and product demonstrations, along with patient resources.

Keeping in mind the increasing emphasis on safety, we created Playbook - a detailed capsule of guidelines to follow for HCPs, that included modules such as risk stratification of work area, rational use of PPE kits, disinfection procedure for equipment and facility, biomedical waste management, dead body handling, etc. It was met with a resounding response with over 5000 downloads within a month of its launch.

Keylearnings and future prospects

Our agile response to the pan-

demic allowed us to quickly adapt to the changing dynamics and reinvent our offerings. We upgraded training programs, created new customized educational modules and consistently stayed relevant to the changing environment. Our initiatives were welcomed by HCPs as they were perceived as being driven by the company's fundamental ethos of empathy and care.

Our experience over the past year indicates that the business model is scalable and sustainable. We are yet to fully realise the power of digitalisation of training. We feel confident that using the modern tools, we can empower HCPs in the remotest parts of the country to provide the best in healthcare.