LMS for Healthcare Explained: A Guide for Associations

September 2, 2024
Medical professionals using an LMS for healthcare.

A surge in resignations and shortage of skilled workers in healthcare makes one thing abundantly clear: The industry is in desperate need of resources to provide scalable educational opportunities. However, to encourage continuous career development, training resources must be both accessible and engaging.

If your healthcare association is ready to provide these learning opportunities, you’ll need a robust learning management system (LMS) to create and manage courses for learners. In this guide, we’ll explore the basics of an LMS for healthcare and help you choose the perfect platform by covering:

As you dive into this guide, keep your organization’s priorities in mind and consider what functionalities you’ll need from the system you ultimately choose. With that in mind, let’s begin!

Wondering how an LMS can help your healthcare organization? Explore our solution.

What’s a Healthcare Learning Management System?

A learning management system (LMS) in healthcare is a specialized platform that manages and delivers educational programs for organizations in the health industry. This includes offering tools to help organizations create instructive content and track learners’ progress. Healthcare associations can use these solutions to provide training on best practices, compliance standards, new technologies, and more.

Must-Have Features of an LMS for Healthcare

When choosing an LMS for your organization, the capabilities you’ll need will depend on your unique audience. However, there are a few must-have features your solution should offer, including:

A list of must-have features to look for in an LMS for healthcare.
  • CME credit support: As continuing medical education (CME) credits are often required to obtain and maintain medical licenses and certifications, your LMS must offer CME credit support. This feature enables your organization to offer and manage accredited courses, directly meeting learners’ needs.
  • ACCME PARS reporting: Choose an LMS that allows you to easily submit required data, such as learner participation and credit amounts, to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s (ACCME’s) Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS). Automating this process reduces the administrative burden on your team.
  • Learner engagement and ratings: An LMS can help keep healthcare professionals actively involved in their learning as well as equip your association to track their participation. Through minimum attendance duration, attendance verification prompts, and other features, the right solution can support your association’s attendance policies and standards.
  • eCommerce and reporting: The right solution will help your organization expand its offerings with robust tools for selling courses and events. This allows learners to browse and purchase learning materials with ease. If your LMS tracks sales data alongside learning progress and engagement metrics, you can comprehensively view the effectiveness of your offerings.
  • AMS and CRM integrations: Your association should be able to connect its LMS with its existing solutions, such as your association management system (AMS) and constituent relationship management (CRM) software. This way, you can synchronize data for a comprehensive view of each individual’s engagement.

Above all, the LMS your association uses must come with the provider’s full support. Instead of viewing the LMS provider as a vendor, consider them your association’s partner. Does the provider offer guidance for virtual events and content migration? Are they readily available to answer any questions you have about the system? Partnering with a supportive provider will set your organization up for success.

LMS Use Cases in Healthcare

With a diverse set of features, there are numerous ways your organization can make the most of an LMS. Here are a few practical use cases in the healthcare industry.

Fuel Virtual Learning

In an increasingly digital age, the need for virtual resources is ever-present. Videos and virtual events are especially useful, considering the hands-on nature of healthcare learning.

With the right LMS, healthcare associations can transform educational experiences to increase accessibility and engagement. By recording presentations, panels, lectures, and interviews with industry experts, associations can easily create virtual learning opportunities to populate their course catalogs. As a result, learners can access content from any device at any time, engaging with these resources at their convenience.

Centralize Content Offerings

Learning management systems do just that—manage learning. Healthcare organizations can consolidate their learning resources and expand their content libraries with a robust LMS, resulting in more learners, higher engagement, and increased non-dues revenue.

5+ Best LMS Systems for Healthcare

Best LMS for Healthcare: Path LMS

Blue Sky eLearn’s Path LMS is the overall best LMS for healthcare organizations. With over 20 years of experience in facilitating successful eLearning experiences and virtual events, Blue Sky eLearn has served over 800 organizations and more than 3 million users.

With Path LMS™, your organization can deliver a library of continuing medical education (CME) content through an easy-to-use platform, leading to increased engagement, retention, and professional development. AI-powered features personalize the learning experience, generate actionable insights from raw data, and supercharge content creation. 

This LMS’s other standout features include:

  • CME credit support
  • Custom branding
  • ACCME PARS reporting
  • Credits and certificates
  • Virtual events
  • Accessibility
  • AMS and CRM integrations
  • eCommerce and reporting
  • Learner engagement 
  • Searchable catalog

Blue Sky eLearn also offers support through its Learning & Development services. Join workshops for guidance in building a learning strategy that accelerates your organization’s goals. A talented team of in-house professionals will collaborate with you to design polished and impactful learning content. 

AI-Powered LMS: Absorb

Absorb’s LMS leverages generative AI to facilitate intelligent content creation, streamlining administrative tasks and saving team time. Additionally, it offers AI-driven content recommendations, connecting users with the resources most relevant to their needs.

Because of Absorb’s emphasis on AI-driven offerings, this system may prioritize automation over customization. Additionally, this LMS primarily serves businesses of various sizes and doesn’t have a specialized focus on healthcare associations. If your team is looking for a solution to host customized and branded content, consider looking for a more flexible LMS purpose-built for associations.

Solution for Workforce Agility: Cornerstone

With a specific focus on improving workforce agility, Cornerstone stands out as a top LMS for professional development. In the healthcare industry, this allows for an engaging learning environment through which health professionals familiarize themselves with compliance requirements and build on their professional skills.

Cornerstone’s clients include companies such as Samsung and Canon, meaning this solution may be more commonly used by for-profit organizations. Choosing an LMS specifically built for member-based organizations or associations like yours will ensure the provider’s goals align with those of your team.

LMS for Employee Training: Talent

Another top solution for compliance training and skill development is Talent, a cloud-based LMS. This easy-to-use LMS can be used by healthcare organizations to quickly deploy training programs and simplify required employee training. 

While it can be used in the healthcare industry, Talent’s training tools have more opportunities for application in employee management circumstances rather than association-focused learning. Member-based organizations with a need for comprehensive educational features should look for a solution with more robust and association-focused offerings.

Corporate LMS: Bridge

While its sole focus isn’t learning management, Bridge’s corporate LMS is a great solution for employee training and engagement. In addition to its learning management features, this platform includes critical HR tools such as performance management, new hire onboarding capabilities, and more.

Although Bridge’s LMS can act as a standalone learning management system for healthcare organizations, its broad functionalities make it better suited for corporations with less of a focus on developing learning experiences. Healthcare associations like yours will benefit from a solution with specialized features for enhancing member engagement.

Easy-to-Use LMS: Litmos

Known for its simplicity, Litmos is an LMS that allows organizations to manage training and compliance without the complexity of larger platforms. Its user-friendly design and AI Assistant allow for quick implementation. Additionally, learners can easily navigate the system to find content that meets their needs and preferences.

While this platform’s ease of use may be beneficial for less tech-savvy users, it may not offer the expansive features and level of customization found in more complex solutions. Additionally, its limited capabilities make it a more generic solution, rather than a comprehensive LMS with specialized features for healthcare associations, like Blue Sky eLearn’s Path LMS.

Wrapping Up

An LMS for healthcare has the potential to maximize learner engagement and non-dues revenue—if your organization uses the right one. Evaluate your organization’s needs and create a list of must-have features you’re looking for. 

Remember, the best LMS won’t just check the boxes on the software side. You should find an LMS vendor that acts as your partner, helping you create and offer the most valuable learning experiences possible. Request demos of your favorite LMS options to connect with the provider, see the solution in action, and find the perfect fit for your organization. 

For more information on what to look for, check out the following additional resources:

Ready to start working with the best LMS for healthcare? Get a demo.

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