MOU signed with groundbreaking doctor

Otago Polytechnic signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Lance O’Sullivan’s Navilluso Medical Ltd this week, strengthening the ties between two innovative, future-focused organisations.

The agreement formalises a groundbreaking education initiative that began several months ago, and lays the platform for further collaboration.

Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year in 2014, Lance has developed iMOKO, an app that enables teachers at participating kohanga, day-care centres and schools to securely send health information about students to a digital health team working from a “cloud” system based in Auckland. They promptly respond with a diagnosis and, importantly, a treatment plan.

Yet in order for Lance to achieve his iMOKO vision, he needed a tailored learning and credentialing solution for the very people involved at the coalface of children’s health.

Which is where EduBits come in: they validate Lance’s healthcare staff’s capabilities, developed through experience, in a timely and cost-effective way, ensuring iMOKO’s  workforce has the skills and knowledge needed for success.

EduBits are ideal for new and emerging skills and knowledge areas, such as Lance’s digital health programme, with a particular focus on new technologies. They can also be tailor-made to satisfy organisation-specific requirements.

In the case of iMOKO, this entails an ongoing training programme for new digital health aides throughout New Zealand.

“Navilluso Medical Ltd is excited to be partnering Otago Polytechnic around the micro-credentialing of a new wave of health workers who will enable health service to the people of New Zealand — all at a time that is of the greatest convenience to them,” Lance says.

“This will allow sustainable models of quality healthcare to be developed and spread.

“There is a potential undiscovered workforce out there. This method of qualifying enables people to pivot from what they are doing today to what they could be doing, say, next month.”

Otago Polytechnic CEO Phil Ker says the relationship is proof of how micro-credentials can make an excellent contribution to education in New Zealand.

“This relationship with Lance and his organisation is just one example of how we can respond very quickly to training requirements – and we have done so.

“This is the space where we are seeking to build our reputation,” Phil says.

“Another recent example is in Electric Vehicle training.”

Otago Polytechnic has created a series of Electric Vehicle (EV) short courses and micro-credentials under its EduBits brand aimed at meeting a growing demand for EV knowledge and validation in New Zealand.

At the end of each short course, learners are assessed and awarded Otago Polytechnic’s EduBits, which validate what they know and can do.

“There is strong demand among those working in the automotive industry to increase their skills and knowledge base of EV technology, and to have that capability recognised by industry-endorsed micro-credentials,” Phil says.

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