Siemens Launches PEP, a Personalized Education Plan for Clinical Laboratory and Healthcare Professionals

DEERFIELD, Ill., Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics introduces Personalized Education Plan (PEP): the industry's first competency-based clinical laboratory education model focused exclusively on the individual. Healthcare professionals, guided by their own instructional Avatar, are easily able to plan a wide variety of product-specific, professional development and job-relevant courses. And because PEP also tracks each individual's training path, it becomes easier for healthcare staff to monitor their progress as they work towards achieving required knowledge proficiency requirements and ensuring they remain current and compliant.

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At a time when clinical laboratory managers face staffing shortages, cost constraints, and greater workloads — all while helping healthcare providers deliver quality patient care — the value of education becomes increasingly important. PEP helps address many of these challenges with an innovative approach to professional healthcare education. This includes a new standard for competency-based education, administrative and tracking support for all participants, along with the ability to mold the curriculum to support various learning needs.

"Over the past four decades, the clinical laboratory diagnostics market has relied heavily upon a 'train-the-trainer' approach for laboratorians to achieve mastery of sophisticated instrumentation, which can be inefficient and expensive," said Chris Christopher, Vice President, Global Customer Solutions, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. "By leveraging today's IT and advanced learning management systems, we developed Personalized Education Plan—a highly innovative, competency-based learning approach that will dramatically change the way our industry conducts training."

PEP offers customized laboratory education that blends interactive training with hands-on practice and assessment to reinforce and internalize learning. Online education is available anytime, anywhere, and is accessible and convenient for all shifts and staff levels. The curricula are standardized and evergreen, ensuring all staff receive consistent education regardless of shift, location or tenure with the company.

"PEP will be a huge advantage to the laboratory because it will bring together all the educational aspects that have always been available offsite and online," says Marilyn Leonard, Chemistry Supervisor, White Plains Hospital, White Plains, NY. "It'll allow me to continually assess and guarantee that everybody in the lab, 24/7, all the different shifts and staff levels—whether full, part time or per diem employees—have the same level of competency."

Beyond a dynamic menu of online product training, PEP also offers education on general laboratory topics and disease-state management. PEP consists of three components:

• My Planner: Allows user and supervisor to design a Personal Education Plan by selecting competency courses that support the specific job role.
• My Curriculum: Launches the user's personal virtual workbook that contains all the educational activities contained in the Planner. The user selects the learning activities and completes them when and where it is convenient.
• My Transcript: The learner can track the progress and completion of all online learning and hands-on activities as well as Continuing Education (CE) credits earned.

The Personalized Education Plan is available exclusively to Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics customers as part of the company's Customer Care portfolio, which includes services and support, education and training, and workflow management.  PEP is currently available in English and will soon be available in multiple languages.

"Siemens has a long history of offering a blended approach to customer training through access to our training centers, onsite education, regional events, and technology-based education systems, which support training at a distance," said Christopher. "With our Personalized Education Plan, we are taking our educational support tools to the next level."

For a virtual look at PEP or more information, visit www.siemens.com/PEP.

The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 48,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. In fiscal year 2010 (to September 30), the Sector posted revenue of 12.4 billion euros and profit of around 750 million euros. For further information please visit: www.siemens.com/healthcare.

SOURCE Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics