Opening up online training to doctors around the world
Dublin based start-up iHeed is partnering with leading medical bodies to deliver postgraduate education remotely
Partnerships with Irish and international medical bodies are allowing iHeed, a Dublin based start-up, to open up medical education to an international audience through its online platform.
The business has partnered with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Irish College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of in Surgeons Ireland, University College Dublin and the University of Warwick. It has developed a platform designed with these institutions to deliver medical education remotely.
“These programmes are postgraduate qualifications that allow doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to enhance their careers, increase their global mobility and provide better care to their patients,” said Tom O’Callaghan, chief executive and founder of iHeed.
“I’m a family doctor by background and have worked a lot in supporting doctors around the world through postgraduate training bodies. I wanted more patients and communities to receive better care by empowering their healthcare professionals.”
The decision to deliver the courses online was driven by a desire to reduce travel costs for healthcare workers, and to enable them to stay close to their communities.
“In reality, many countries are challenged in terms of their own university capacity,” O’Callaghan said. “This is a way of getting healthcare professionals access to world-leading universities without them having to travel and, in a way, without them having to leave the workforce.
“The vast majority of family doctors in the world are women. In many of the countries we work in, if they had to travel abroad they’d have to take time out of the workforce and their families might have to travel with them.”
Founded in 2013, the business has 45 staff and plans to grow that number to 88 over the next 12 months. Its growth has been accelerated by greater acceptance globally of online education.
“Since Covid, more governments and regulators have begun to accept online education. About a third of our students are in Europe, a third in the Middle East, and a third in the rest of the world. We’re active now in over 70 countries and student numbers are growing,” O’Callaghan added.
“We’ve moved to new offices in Sandyford in south Dublin, and it’s quite an exciting time for the business. Cambridge Education Group became our majority shareholder last year. It has over 20 university partners across Europe and the US, so that has helped us to expand.”
The business has been supported by Enterprise Ireland through its development, having gone through the state agency’s high potential start-up programme.
“We’ve had huge support from Enterprise Ireland, particularly in reaching new markets. I’ve been on ten different trade missions with them and it has helped us to grow enormously,” O’Callaghan said.
“We’re excited about the future. We’re expanding the number of programmes we have to help people examine changes in their careers within the healthcare sector.”
This Making it Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland
