1 Introduction

Medicine is a changing field and so is the art of teaching medicine. To cope up with technology and science is a major challenge. We all have been trained by conventional classroom teaching, which includes seminars, demonstrations, and bedside clinics but should now be aware of e-learning, blended learning, use of smartphones and tablets, webinars, telemedicine, and tele-education. There is a lot of medical content in the social media (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), which is very easy to access. This chapter gives an overview of how electronics have changed the way we practice, keep our records, learn, and teach.

2 What Is Distance Learning in Medical Education?

Distance learning has long been associated with education. It was in this form that correspondence courses were first offered by a few universities and other educational institutions. The learning modules were sent to the students by post. This was associated with a learning delay mainly due to the use of postal services and sometimes the module was lost in transit. Recently using electronic media or e-learning has taken over the transmission. It is rapid and learning is also easier as there is more information using different media [1] (Table 40.1).

Table 40.1 Compares the differences between the two types of learning
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3 Do All Institutions Offer Online Career Enrichment Courses?

Many institutions offer online courses on various subjects. These courses are for a short duration and the fee has to be deposited at the time of registration. They are career enrichment courses and you need to have a basic degree before enrolling in them. Some of the well-accepted medical courses are run by the Mayo Clinic [2], Harvard Medical School [3], The European League Against Rheumatism [4], Stanford Medicine [5], and Johns Hopkins University [6]. Although the physician needs to register at a particular time of year with a stipulated fee, they are very popular in Asia as the degree is from a reputed Institution.

Many online free portals offer academic courses that are getting well accepted among the younger generation. One of the sites is the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) [7]. The basic content in them is free but more advanced information requires a nominal payment.

4 What Are the Advantages of an Online Education?

It is usually thought that medicine cannot be taught without examination of patients. William Osler, a Canadian physician who taught in the Johns Hopkins Medical School and is considered to be the father of modern medicine had stated, ‘He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all’.

With an online course, the world becomes your classroom. There are many advantages of online education. Technology will play a major role in the education of our next generation [8] although Niels Bohr said, ‘Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future’. But we need to be ready for the future by upscaling our infrastructure for online technology. The following are clear advantages of online teaching:

  • Flexibility in learning hours.

  • Reduced cost as there is no commuting time.

  • Opportunity to do networking.

  • A subject can be explained in detail with the need for experienced teachers.

  • Easy to attend.

5 What Is Blending Learning?

The boundaries between distance learning and classroom learning are getting blurred. The proliferation of information and communication technology in education is going to be the next boom. Blending learning is an educational method which combines online education with an opportunity to interact with a traditional place-based classroom. It is also called hybrid learning and both components are complementary to one another (Fig. 40.1).

Digital medicine has helped blending learning to reach a new level and digital education includes didactic lectures, group, or panel discussions. It has been observed that with the use of digital technology the attendance of students has improved, student evaluation can also be done and the progress of students can be monitored as well.

In a systematic review done on medical students to compare the traditional classroom learning to digital learning, there was no difference between the two types but blended digital education was more effective than traditional learning [9]. In another meta-analysis there was no difference between the two forms of education methods. However, the investigators could not come to a conclusion about students’ attitudes and student satisfaction in this study [10].

Fig. 40.1
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Types of learning

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6 What Is a Webinar?

The word ‘Webinar’ is a combination of ‘web’ and ‘seminar’. A webinar is like an oral presentation with the exception that the event is held on the World Wide Web, which is attended exclusively by a single online viewer. The presenter and attendee do not need to travel and can attend the webinar from home. This distinguishes it from a webcast, which also needs the presence of physical viewers. Other words used as substitutes for webinars are web event, online seminar, webcast, web lecture, and virtual event (Fig. 40.2).

Participants view webinars by using their personal computers, Macs, tablets or smartphones, and they can see and hear the speaker who is addressing them. A webinar offers an effective way of communication: where the presenter can reach out to a large group from a single location. Hence, a webinar offers various interactive opportunities to ask queries, have opinion polls, carry out surveys and chat with other participants.

It is the latest form of educational tool and can reach out a large audience in a short span of time. It is also quick and replaces the normal method of giving lectures. As the COVID-19 pandemic becomes widespread, all major conferences across the globe are being cancelled and replaced by webinars. In a study done in five continents over a webinar, it was found that it was well accepted by all the attendees as a source of continuous medical education (CME) [11].

Fig. 40.2
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Screenshot of webinar in process

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7 What Are the Ten Golden Rules for Conducting a Webinar?

Ten rules have been suggested for conducting webinars and these are listed below [12]:

  1. 1.

    Identify the organizing team. There should be dedicated staff who work on all the logistics, planning, and communication for hosting and take the major load of work (Fig. 40.3).

  2. 2.

    A webinar that is based on a single theme is better accepted by the audience.

  3. 3.

    Have a checklist for tracking the work and responsibilities.

  4. 4.

    Plan a poster for the webinar.

  5. 5.

    Plan the timing of the webinar—one should remember that time zones differ between countries when planning to attract a larger audience from some of them.

  6. 6.

    Use a friendly webinar platform. Those commonly used are Zoom, Microsoft, blue jeans, GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, Vidyo, and Google hangouts. Also, consider how many can attend on each platform.

  7. 7.

    The choice of the presenter should be good and he or she should be an expert in the field.

  8. 8.

    Advertise it well on social media and also by emailing the information to potential participants.

  9. 9.

    Allocate a time to each speaker and also for the question and answer sessions.

  10. 10.

    Have a dry run one day prior to or on the same day but much before the meeting to fix any technical issues which may arise.

Fig. 40.3
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How a webinar works?

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8 What Are the Important Features of Various Platforms for a Webinar?

There are many webinar platforms and include Zoom, Google Meet, and WebEx. The meeting can be planned according to some salient features. Since video conferences are no longer limited to desktops and laptops, both Google Meet and Zoom are available for mobile devices based on Android and iOS. These virtual fields are dynamic and the platforms are constantly upgrading to give better services (Table 40.2).

figure a

8.1 Zoom

  • Can be accessed from any device.

  • App needs to be downloaded.

  • Can allow one hundred participants free and up to fifty thousand after subscription.

  • The first 40 minutes of the virtual meeting is free but the meeting can be extended by paying.

  • Up to forty-nine participates can be seen on the screen at one time.

  • Has a facility for a small breakout sub-meeting.

  • Registration of participants is easy with email.

  • Live streaming on social media is possible.

  • Muting and unmuting can be done by the speaker.

  • The proceedings can be recorded.

  • Participants can ask questions to the speaker and even polling can be done.

  • Recently concerns about security issues were raised while using this.

figure b

8.2 Google Meet

  • Has a very low learning curve as compared to Zoom.

  • Has no time for interaction and after September 2020 it will be free for sixty minutes.

  • Has encryption of the video and recordings, and it prohibits anonymous users from entering calls.

  • Can presently host up to two hundred and fifty people.

  • Can show up to sixteen participants in one screen.

  • No waiting room for participants as they can join early.

  • Only one person at a time can share their screen.

Table 40.2 Comparison of Zoom and Google Meet
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8.3 Jio Meet

  • Allows from one to one hundred participants like the Zoom Video Conferencing App.

  • The main advantage is that it has no time limit for meeting for a conference. The free call can last for as long as 24 hours uninterrupted.

  • The entry to the meeting is password protected like Zoom.

  • There is a waiting room for security purposes.

  • Participants can send text and voice messages, files, and images to one another.

figure d

8.4 Microsoft Team

  • Fully integrated with office 365

  • No time limit for a call

  • No waiting rooms

  • Recording in cloud and screen sharing possible

  • Can be accessed from any electronic device

  • Instant messaging possible

9 Can Textbooks and Journals Also Be Accessed Electronically?

In the current era, there is a trend towards the demise of published textbooks and medical journals. All leading medical journals are also published electronically. Medical journals have been compared to ‘telephone directories’ as they are dull. It is easy to scan an electronic copy and you can know what information is useful. The information can be accessed from smartphones, tablets, or laptops which are more handier.

Many journals allow downloading of full text and an e-library is getting more popular. One of the important and popular sites is the ERMED Consortium an Electronic Resources in Medicine site maintained by the National Medical Library of India. Members are divided into Level-I and Level-II on the basis of a number of end-users in different institutes. High-quality 242 online e-journals are available for students or researchers. There is 24×7 instant online access to multiple users and no restrictions on downloads and printing. The other e-portals have been listed in the chapter on ‘How to do a review of the literature’. These include INFLIBNET a centre in Gandhinagar and an autonomous inter-university centre under the University Grants Commission. It contains a digital library of more than 15,000 core peer-reviewed journals and a number of bibliography citations and databases. INDMED is an Indian biomedical journal base that covers 78 journals and provides online access to full-text Indian journals within this country, and abroad.

10 What Is the Medical Infodemic?

An excessive amount of information about medical problems which spreads rapidly without any reliable source is called a medical infodemics. During this COVID-19 pandemic, the information on multiple issues have been disseminated in public without any reliable sources.

WhatsApp is popular and convenient in medical education. Current published literature suggests it may also be effective as a medical learning tool. It can be a useful and handy tool for medical students and primary care physicians provided the source is authentic.

11 Can Teaching Occur Using a YouTube Video?

YouTube is the second most accessed social media site after Facebook. YouTube has the potential to fill literacy gaps and can present data in innovative ways that allow even illiterate people to learn. It is increasingly being used as a podium for publicizing health-related information. However, the contents of the site are not peer reviewed and there is no authenticity regarding the information which may be misleading, or containing unsubstantiated work which the creator wants to publish on a social platform. Many pharmaceutical companies sponsor videos, which describe new drugs or vaccines. There are no set scores regarding how to judge the content of videos, and determine the reliability of the video’s sources of information except by seeing the number of ‘likes’ for the video [13,14,15].

12 How Can Smartphones Be Used for Medical Education?

Mobile apps are software programmes that run on smartphones. They can also be accessories that attach to smartphones or other mobile communication devices, or a combination of accessories and software. Smartphones are like mini computers and ninety percent of doctors use them [16]. Because one can access medical literature via the Internet or WIFI, the publication on medical apps has increased in PubMed over the last few years (Fig. 40.4). In addition, one can download Medical apps for iPhones or Android devices. These apps help in patient diagnosis, calculating scores, clinical decisions, and also to look for drug interactions. The names of a few important apps are given below [17]. However, there are a few legal and non-legal requirements for the development of apps. As data is required to be stored in someplace (for instance in a cloud) it should be not be should for research purposes. Many apps also require personal information which needs to be protected. The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) of America also has a policy for mobile apps [18]. Health-related apps have arrived and they have a definite role in the treatment of diseases in all fields of medicine. Apps are also available to patients for control of diabetes and mental health and are commonly used Table 40.3).

Fig. 40.4
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The number of medical publications on apps has increased tremendously over the last few years

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In a study of 328 apps (175 Android and 153 iOS) seventy-three percent were developed by the software industry and only a minority of them were codeveloped by health care professionals or academia (Fig. 40.5). The most prevalent specialty was diabetes (23 apps). Only 7 apps focused on mental health, but their content was easily understood and had the highest prevalence of an educational component. The most prevalent features were reminders, symptom trackers, and an ability to share data with a family member or doctor. We have highlighted the features which we considered to be innovative and listed some practical suggestions for future development [19].

Table 40.3 Commonly used medical apps
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Fig. 40.5
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Apps for health care professionals

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13 Conclusions

  • Nelson Mandela stated that ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’. However, in the present day scenario, it can be said that technology is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.

  • Blended teaching is the next generation teaching method, which is a combination of classroom teaching and online teaching.

  • Webinars, medical apps, and YouTube are part of the new technology. The first two have scientific content which can be moderated, however, the contents of YouTube are dependent on the person uploading the video.