Hossein Khalili

Abstract:

The post-COVID transformation of healthcare education is required to be aligned with the societal needs and with the evolving healthcare delivery systems. In the past few years, the world experienced unprecedented devastation, disruption, and death due to the COVID-19 global Pandemic. At the same time, the Pandemic acts as a transformation catalyst that accelerated the implementation and adoption of long overdue changes in healthcare education and practice, including telehealth and virtual learning. Interprofessional collaboration during the pandemic was able to foster healthcare transformation in several ways at the policy and legislative level, such as the fast-tracking of internationally trained professions. The role and use of digital technologies, specifically with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and metaverse, in healthcare education and practice are being extended and solidified by the pandemic. Macro-level policies acknowledging the importance of population health are key for future interprofessional collaboration of stakeholders to address inequalities. Similarly, interprofessional collaboration is key to addressing the proliferation of misinformation. Interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) can be effectively utilized to combat misinformation by increasing health literacy amongst health professions and the communities they serve. 

Going forward, the integration and sustainability of digital technologies, AI, metaverse and IPECP in healthcare education and practice are crucial and the experience of utilizing these new approaches within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic should be reflected on, researched, and evaluated to inform future global healthcare systems and the workforce to provide and achieve the Quintuple Aim (better health, better care, better value, better work experience, and better health equity). As we are emerging out of the Pandemic, we have a unique opportunity to leverage on the lessons learned from the pandemic in fostering the healthcare transformation through innovation, digital technologies, and collaboration.