Sharing innovation: the case for technology standards in health professions education

Abstract

Information technologies have provided fertile ground for innovation in healthcare education, but too often these innovations have been limited in scope and impact. One way of addressing these limitations is the development of common and open technology standards to scale innovation across organizational boundaries. Research on the diffusion of standards indicates that environmental forces, such as regulatory changes, top-down management support, and feasibility are key determinants of standards adoption. This paper describes the perspective and work of MedBiquitous, the only internationally recognized standards body in healthcare education. Many innovators are implementing MedBiquitous healthcare education standards to effect change within and across organizations. In a resource-constrained and knowledge intensive domain such as healthcare education, collaboration is an imperative. Technology standards are essential to raise the quality of healthcare education and assessment in a cost-effective manner.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valerie Smothers

VALERIE SMOTHERS, Deputy Director, MedBiquitous, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Email: [email protected]

Peter Greene

PETER GREENE, Executive Director, MedBiquitous, and Associate Dean of Emerging Technologies, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Email: [email protected]

Rachel Ellaway

RACHEL ELLAWAY, Assistant Dean and Associate Professor Education Informatics, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Email: [email protected]

Don E. Detmer

DON E. DETMER, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Medical Informatics Association, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Professor of Medical Education, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Email: [email protected]