IMER is a free education provider for healthcare professionals; a private institution dedicated to research and to providing training to medical staff specialized in oncology. To support its goal, it offers free courses for participants financed through scientific grants awarded by the pharmaceutical industry. The portal is characterized by containing a wide variety of multimedia contents aimed at spreading scientifically relevant information and keeping the medical staff's skills up-to-date. In addition, it administers tests and gives certifications of continuing education, which are required by law to doctors and nurses in the United States.
Thanks to the development carried out by
1oc in collaboration with IMER's IT Department, it was possible to successfully handle all the data involved in these events, such as registration to the events, management of paper data, webcasts and on-demand technology, creation and control of résumés, user reports in real time, certifications and program evaluations.
Learning platform on the Internet with GeneXusTheir learning platform is based on a strategy that involves events and conferences –broadcasted in real time on the Internet (webcast) and on-demand education. The portal is characterized by the events' applications, using a workflow system that controls several variables: online registration, user authentication and other multimedia applications.
The generation of news and publication of scientific content is combined between GeneXus and the portal; for example, on the homepage they publish the news generated through the editor workflow incorporated into GXportal (which is managed by several IMER teams made up of scientists, doctors and nurses who carry out the corresponding research, and a group of writers and editors). In addition, GeneXus applications are combined to handle data, create online courses, evaluations, tests and to print certificates.
The combination of GeneXus programming embedded in GXportal makes it possible to use all that information through a mixed CMS (GeneXus/Portal), thus reducing or eliminating the time dedicated by specialized staff (web administrators), leaving the task of publishing contents directly to end users.
Outstanding features of the portal• Integration of contents from GeneXus applications into the portal.
• CMS to manage application data thanks to the workflow fed by editors through filters that define publication.
• Site to integrate places, forms, events, topics and speakers.
• Interactive map in real time connected to the applications' CMS.
Even though in the past IMER already used a standard Web system which had learning channels, the use of GeneXus and GXportal enabled them to significantly reduce the time needed to create online events, which –generated from lectures and other courses created by the scientific team– used to take an average of 30 days and now are completed in only 3 days, which is the equivalent to saying that productivity has been increased by 1000 %. In that regard, Angelo Nardone, IT director at IMER, said that: “The use of GXportal also increased the number of events within the country, as they grew from 200 to 600 in the same time frame.”
More specific benefitsFor a quantitative idea of what it means to increase productivity by 300 %, they explain that during 2009 IMER offered more than 900 local events across the country; 150 events were simulcast worldwide through their webcast platform, 4 annual conferences with more than 10,000 participants at IMER's symposiums and more than 100 online on-demand programs. At present it has an average of 30 thousand registered users in their systems managed by GXportal and offers them more than 100 hours of online education, which is available for free for all its subscribers.