A healthcare learning management system (LMS) is software designed to provide continuing education, ensure compliance training, and improve skills. It’s a terrific resource for medical professionals and organizations to work toward providing the best possible patient care. 

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The Importance of an LMS in Healthcare

A healthcare LMS plays several crucial roles in the medical sector. It can help organizations improve their performance and help medical professionals provide the highest levels of care. Some of the biggest impacts it has are:

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It Makes Learning Materials More Accessible

Busy medical professionals are often short on time. Therefore, attending classes to further their education can feel strenuous. On top of that, there aren’t always courses available in every location to provide training for each medical specialty. 

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The healthcare LMS solves that issue by making learning and training materials available online and on demand. Professionals can log in wherever and whenever they have time to learn, access the right resources, and gain skills they can effectively apply on the job. 

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Apply Standardized and Consistent Training

Equipment, best practices, and treatment methodologies in healthcare sectors constantly evolve as new research gets published. There can also be a lot of confusion in that process where healthcare professionals want to learn, but the resources available aren’t consistent. 

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An LMS that provides a widely available platform to professionals across an organization or treatment specialty helps standardize this information. That way, everyone can access consistent training that keeps healthcare providers and their teams on the same page and up to industry standards. 

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Facilitates Communication and Collaboration

An LMS for healthcare can provide a centralized place for professionals to communicate and collaborate. Social learning and knowledge sharing are key to innovation and improvement in the healthcare industry. Communicating back and forth can help learners develop strategies for providing better care.

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Now that we’ve covered the general purpose and importance of the healthcare LMS, we will now explore LMS's meaning. 

A healthcare LMS provides a base server and user interface (UI) for learning materials. It’s designed to provide a step-by-step process to learning that guides medical professionals through everything they need to know. While there are several general LMSs available, the healthcare LMS is designed specifically for health and medical continuing education needs, such as: 

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• Managing complex learning involved with compliance and health code standardization 
• Handling the intricacies of healthcare regulations
• Providing visuals through video and live-streamed content
• Integrating organizational events that enhance knowledge
• Allowing the opportunity for organizations to connect and communicate with members
• Facilitating collaboration and social sharing between learners

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All these features provide a well-rounded and interactive learning experience for healthcare training programs. 

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While online learning resources may not provide the hands-on nature of in-person courses with labs, they’re still interactive enough to reinforce knowledge. Plus, you can integrate your healthcare LMS with in-person events that provide hands-on experience for a hybrid approach that facilitates knowledge gain in all aspects. 

You may have encountered the terms LMS and CMS while searching for solutions to host content with learning materials. They sound similar, so it’s common to wonder what the difference is between them. 

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A content management system (CMS) works a bit differently than an LMS. A CMS is a software used to create, edit, and publish digital content. It’s primarily used for websites, blogs, e-commerce, and product support. Some popular CMSs you may have heard of are WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace. They’re all used to host websites with different styles, use cases, and interfaces. 

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The main difference between the LMS and CMS is that the LMS caters to learning materials, whereas the CMS is better for general website design and management. 

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You could create a website with blogs, articles, and videos that provide educational resources. However, organizing this information into a systemized approach to help students learn or complete certification and compliance courses is much harder. 

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The LMS will provide additional features like:

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• Course progress tracking
• A complete, easy-to-navigate, and searchable library of courses
• Step-by-step instructions and interactive activities for users
• Integration with other software, video technology, and live streaming solutions
• An interface that makes it easier to upload, edit, and manage learning materials without a lot of technical skill involved

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Therefore, you can use the CMS to host your website with information about your organization. Then, use the LMS to host your learning materials in a smooth interface that makes it easy for your users to access and navigate. 

Some widely used LMSs include Google Classroom, Brightspace, and EthosCE. Options like Google Classroom and Brightspace are good general LMSs that provide features for basic learning needs. However, they aren’t tailored to the specific needs of healthcare organizations. 

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EthosCE LMS at Cadmium is designed specifically for healthcare organizations and professionals. Therefore, it’s a top choice as a healthcare LMS that provides all the detailed features needed for complex learning in this field. 

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Some areas where EthosCE stands out for healthcare continuing education needs are:

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• Managing compliance: As mentioned earlier, compliance in healthcare is crucial. EthosCE is customizable to your needs, so you can ensure complex requirements are met in learning materials and manage accreditations throughout the process. 
• Quickly updating materials: Today’s medical field is dynamic and constantly changing with new technology and research. EthosCE will allow you to easily navigate and edit learning materials you’ve created to ensure they remain up to date as medical best practices change. 
• Providing enduring content: EthosCE will help you manage communication for both in-person and online content. It’ll provide you with resources to continuously engage your organization’s members, help them through any difficulties in the learning process, and distribute on-demand content with new updates. 
• Building a complete educational library: Many organizations who’ve used EthosCE for years have built extensive educational libraries on the platform. That way, new and existing members can access everything you’ve covered in an easily searchable database whenever they need to learn new skills to further their professional development. 

While researching healthcare learning management system vendors, you probably want to see examples of LMSs being used successfully. Here are some examples from our case studies where organizations used EthosCE to improve their continuing education materials. 

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Case Study #1 - American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS)

AACS is a leading education provider for cosmetic surgery practitioners. To continue providing high-quality learning materials, they were looking for an LMS that could help systemize their efforts. They were hoping the right healthcare LMS could help:

• Increase course enrollments and completion.
• Streamline course management and grow offerings.
• Develop personalized learning paths.

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After thorough research, AACS landed on EthosCE as the ideal fit for their needs. What stood out to them about EthosCE was that it offered an intuitive design, personalization features, and the ability to integrate live and on-demand content. AACS felt like they could build an extensive content library and platform that felt on-brand for them while using the software. 

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The results they had after implementing EthosCE were outstanding: 

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• Course enrollments increased by 62%, and completions went up 45%
• On-time membership renewals increased by 20% 
• It streamlined credit and certificate processes to reduce administrative overhead

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AACS noted that the platform was especially valuable for their residents in training programs. They set it up so residents could use it for free, and they became some of the most frequent users. It ended up being a great incentive to attract more learners. 

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Case Study #2 - Tulane University Continuing Education

The Region 6 South Central Public Health Training Center at Tulane University was looking for an LMS that could help manage and grow its continuing education content library. 

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Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine sets itself apart by offering more than 200 self-paced and on-demand courses to provide continuing education for healthcare and medical professionals. 

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After reviewing different options, they landed on EthosCE as the right choice to manage their healthcare continuing education library. They were especially interested in the Learning Groups feature of EthosCE, which helps users navigate a catalog of recommended courses. It was a much better organizational feature than what Tulane was working with before. 

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Once they adopted EthosCE, they noticed great results:

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• Their courses were being accessed by more learners globally
• They had growing use from different types of learners
• Both professionals in the public health sector and medical sector were able to complete courses and have great results

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Overall, they were happy with their decision to use EthosCE and felt confident that it could help them continue growing and managing their course catalog for years to come. 

A healthcare LMS is essential for organizations to provide and enhance continuing education materials in this complex industry. A healthcare LMS, such as EthosCE, provides several benefits: 

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• It makes learning materials more accessible
• You can personalize it and make it on-brand for your organization
• The platform is intuitive for learners and your organization’s team members
• It handles the complexities of compliance requirements for standardized training
• You can integrate on-demand and live content for a well-rounded learning experience

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EthosCE from Cadmium can help you enhance your healthcare continuing education system. It provides everything you need in one place, such as: 

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• Managing compliance requirements
• Providing an intuitive and searchable course library
• Distributing course certifications and accreditations
• Integrating in-person and live events
• Managing communication
• Tracking data to understand how your efforts are working

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‍ to learn more about how EthosCE can fit your organization’s needs.

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