The past few months have opened our eyes to the fact that there is no escaping our global interconnectedness and, as a result, our responsibilities to each other as global citizens.
Ebola has so far claimed more than 5,000 lives, almost exclusively in West Africa, but, chillingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention organisation in the US has predicted that this figure could rise to more than one million if the virus is not contained and instead manages to extend its reach beyond Africa.
Globally, we are facing a shortage of 7.2 million doctors, nurses and healthcare workers. It is estimated that at least 57 developing countries are facing a critical shortfall of the doctors and nurses needed to meet minimum needs.
We know that one billion people living on this planet have no access to healthcare services at all, be it doctors, nurses or community health workers, to provide advice and treatment in times of illness and crisis.
Every year, nine million children die from simple treatable conditions, such as gastroenteritis, pneumonia and malaria. Almost 350,000 mothers die each year, predominantly in Africa, from preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
These figures seems so physically and emotionally distant from the reality of our lives in the West, where low maternal mortality rates continue to decline.
In Europe, more than 130,000 doctors are trained every year to care for a population of almost 750 million people. By comparison, in Africa there are only 5,000 doctors trained every year for a rapidly growing population of more than one billion.
In real terms, there are almost no doctors in large swathes of Africa, while more than 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have no medical schools at all. The same applies for nurses and all other healthcare workers, for whom the need is even greater.
No funds for medical schools
The bottom line is that we simply cannot build enough medical schools because the global funds are not available. In truth, the traditional bricks-and-mortar model of medical school is both too expensive and probably the wrong solution.
We have already seen the early improvements in higher education areas popularised by massive open online courses (Moocs) and, in particular, the corporate training sector, which has traditionally moved much faster. There is a growing body of evidence to show that the new mobile and online training programmes work, and that the learning outcomes (and, as a result, the clinical outcomes for patients) are as effective as traditional classroom-based programmes, but at a fraction of the cost.
This is a great opportunity. However, we must call on the Government to allocate the funding that is badly needed to address this problem urgently. Here in Ireland, using the institutional expertise we have in our world-class medical and nursing schools, as well as our postgraduate training bodies, we can help to build the new models and online courses for doctors and nurses that will address training needs in Africa and beyond.
We must reimagine the medical school of the future to be a predominantly online and blended lower-cost model that addresses global inequality, producing competent doctors and nurses at a cost that is affordable for global purposes.
Connecting a tutor/mentor at a hospital in Ireland to a colleague in Liberia is as straightforward as the Skype calls that are made every night in homes across the country.
Health makes economic sense
We must increase access to health education and address the global shortfall of healthcare workers, not only because it works and is the right thing to do, but because it makes economic sense and protects all of us. All you have to do is look at the economic cost so far of the Ebola outbreak, which, according to current World Bank Group estimates, will amount to more than $2 billion in lost GDP this year for West Africa.
Through technology, we have the ability to upskill and share knowledge rapidly across borders, potentially preventing outbreaks of disease from spreading and causing worldwide devastation.
This can be achieved, and we all have our part to play.
Get Health: A Global Education and Technology Health Summit runs in Dublin Castle on November 13th and 14th Dr Tom O Callaghan is chief executive of the Irish social enterprise iheed