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SMILE: Smart & Massive Learning and Education to tackle global health worker shortage

Background

According to the WHO, the shortage of 18 million health workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries (6 million in Africa alone) needs to be overcome to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. This dramatically widening gap does not only have devastating ramifications for the health status of millions of people, but will impede the socio-economic development of many low and middle-income nations. Novel technologies and concepts including artificial intelligence and in particular intelligent assistants, the ubiquity of mobile phones and networked media and the emergence of massive open online courses are opening up new and unprecedented opportunities to educate massive cohorts of health workers in flexible and personalized ways directly in the marginalized areas in which they live and work. What is lacking, however, is evidence-based knowledge that enables and guides the design, integration and use of these emerging technologies.

Objective

Building the evidence base for the design, integration and effective use of smart mobile technologies to train and educate massive cohorts of frontline health workers in low-income countries to tackle health worker shortages. This includes the development, deployment and validation of learning and training concepts, technologies and curricular models on a wide scale.

Expected Benefits

• In target country: Enlarging the pool of well-qualified health workers will have a significant impact on health and socio-economic development, stability and peace.

• In Switzerland: By bringing together and advancing education, health care and artificial intelligence and by fostering innovation across these domains, this research will strengthen the position of Switzerland in several dynamically growing areas. More precisely, the further development and integration of conversational AI, networked mobile technologies, and massive online education will also be of relevance in middle and high-income countries and in domains other than health , and will thus help Switzerland to strengthen its innovative edge.

Contact Information

Christoph Pimmer, , phone: +41 61 279 18 49

Institute for Information Systems, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW

SMILE: Smart & Massive Learning and Education
SMILE: Smart & Massive Learning and Education

Partner countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Switzerland, Zambia

Research Partners: National Governments and Health Ministries, United Nations Organisations (WHO, ITU), national training and research institutions and professional bodies, large multistakeholder partnerships (e.g. HEPI) and business representatives

Cost:CHF 18 Mio

Duration:4 years