Building a global health education network for clinical care and research: the benefits and challenges of distance learning tools

Expanding the capacity for clinical care and health research is a global priority and a global challenge. In disenfranchised communities facing the largest burden of disease, whether they be in rural Africa or in urban US, there is a great need for more well-trained, competent and dedicated health care providers. In addition, globalization has necessitated that an understanding of global health issues is a requirement for all health care providers, whether they be community health workers in rural Uganda, private practitioners in Mumbai or Los Angeles or faculty at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Resource-limited communities also require a greater capacity for and ownership of their own health research priorities and programs. Meeting these pressing needs for human capacity building in health care and research will require additional resources, but also innovation. Traditional approaches to clinical and research education are important and necessary, but not sufficient to achieve the scale and pace of human capacity building required. Distance learning programs, that include mHealth as well as other information technology (IT) platforms and tools, can provide unique, timely, cost-effective and valuable opportunities to expand access to training, clinical care support and strategic information for clinicians and researchers, throughout the world.