The Cure4Kids network has grown to over 500 users in the first six months of operation. The users are mainly from international countries (75%) but domestic usage is also increasing rapidly. Although 89% of users know how to read and speak in English, over 45% use Spanish as their main language. Often international nurses do not speak English. We have put an increasing focus on developing content in multiple languages. We have also been assisting partner hospitals get Internet networking and computing infrastructure.
The use of the online conferencing tools has extended beyond lectures to discussions of clinical cases and referrals, and the discussion of clinical protocols. The number of online collaborations and group discussions has increased significantly. Despite the fact that our Internet audio conferencing is not full duplex and only allows one person to speak at time, users have been very exited about hearing each other’s voice. Most users prefer the Internet audio conferencing over text only conferencing. We suspect there is a very significant value to the human touch that an audio conversation has over text-based web-conferencing. We are observing the development relationships among people and sites that would not have developed with just on-demand learning.
