HealthSat Supports the Ontario Government’s Action Plan to Establish A Medical School in Northern and Rural Ontario Using E-Learning Technologies

HealthSat Network Inc., an established broadcast leader in providing e-learning content for physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, is pleased to support the Ontario government’s commitment to establish a “made-in-Northern Ontario” medical school that will train medical professionals to practice in the North using “e- learning” technology.

HealthSat, which provides a delivery mechanism for e-learning content across Canada, has been in discussions with the Ontario Government, universities and colleges, hospitals, medical and nursing organizations regarding new e-learning opportunities in rural and Northern regions of the province.

HealthSat believes strongly that e-learning will help hospitals and other health care providers to recruit and retain health care professionals, especially in under-serviced regions of the province. “E-learning provides a cost-effective way to educate and train health care workers wherever they happen to be,” said Ray Homer, President of HealthSat.

“Distance learning through satellite programming is increasingly being used by universities and colleges,” according to Wendy McBride, Executive Director, Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing. “Schools of nursing have had considerable experience in distance education generally and are expanding from traditional modalities to include satellite broadcasting…especially in Rural and Northern Ontario.”

Each year there are approximately 2,000 nurses who have specialized and attained their re-certification in Ontario. The maintenance of certification requires continuing education that could be achieved through the HealthSat network at home via satellite broadcast delivery.

Prior to HealthSat, healthcare professionals had very few choices for their continuing health care education. HealthSat is the first private network in Canada, that allows for accredited programming, open discussions, medical updates, emergency health bulletins, association news, etc, in the comfort of their homes. Information on HealthSat is available on its web site at www.healthsatcanada.com.