Case Studies - The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (MOREob)

The Client

Founded in 1944, the SOGC is an award-winning medical society recognized for the excellence of its education programs and resources, including an unmatched Continuing Medical Education program, and the Journal for Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The SOGC promotes optimal reproductive health care for all Canadians and informed choice in a wide range of medical and public education venues. The SOGC has a long history of providing obstetric risk management programs.

SOGC-MORE (Managing Obstetric Risk Efficiently)

Project Description:

The MOREOB program, prepared by SOGC, is intended for obstetric health professionals, including doctors, nurses and midwives, as an educational tool. The MOREob program integrates labour and delivery core content with High Reliability Organizational Structure principles, reflective learning, and practice modification tools to improve patient care and reduce clinical error, adverse events and liability costs. MOREOB is provided to hospitals, regions, or other health care service providers which license seats from SOGC. The SOGC needed a development partner that could translate a concept of content delivery and evaluation tools into an easily updated, easily used application.

The bitHeads Solution:

bitHeads worked closely with medical society to create a program from a blank page exceeding their expectations in educational capability. Originally developed as a CD-ROM, later moved to the Web, MOREOB is comprised of modules which cover specific aspects of obstetrics, such as Management of Labour. Each multi-media module states the purpose of the module, delivers critical information on the topic, and includes diagnostic tips and best practices for minimizing risk. In addition, the MOREOB program can be used as a self-assessment tool. It includes case studies whereby users can test their knowledge before and after studying the module content. From a technical point of view, scalability was provided by establishing firm divisions between components, and clean interfaces between layers. Development of MOREOB involved the use of SQL Server 2000, Java, Java Server Pages, HTML, XML, Microsoft FrontPage, VisualBasic, and InstallShield.

Results:

Delivered on time and on budget, the MOREOB program has been successfully deployed across Canada, and is updated by SOGC and bitHeads on a regular basis. Beginning work on this project in June 2002, bitHeads today continues to enhance the features of MOREOB and add content. Based on the success of MOREOB, SOGC asked bitHeads to develop a new Continuing Professional Development program (CPD). This tool, similar to MOREOB, is for SOGC members, and extends its content to education in peripheral areas of medicine which SOGC members may encounter.