K2P: The virtual learning platform for clinicians on the go

Mary Ellen Beliveau is the founder and CEO of Knowledge to Practice (K2P), a digital healthcare education platform that focuses on heart conditions. Designed for working clinicians to continually update their knowledge, she tells us why she decided to create it. 

Beliveau's daughter was born with congenital heart disease, something which led her to be in and out of hospitals during the first years of her life. Before getting the right diagnosis, she had to undergo a series of invasive procedures. Beliveau says that while grateful for the care the doctors gave her, she realised there was an issue for doctors to stay up-to-date with the latest medical treatments.

This spurred her to launch K2P in 2014. She quit her day job as Chief Learning Officer of the American College of Cardiology, hired five people, designed the curriculum, and developed the content, building the platform in just six months. "We set out to create a platform that would provide personalised learning, offer best-in-class content, and include real-time assessments that would provide us with the information we needed to continually improve our product" she says. 

The platform is made up of short modules, some taking as little as five minutes to complete, containing the latest guidelines for a range of cardiovascular conditions such as heart failure, hypertension, and coronary artery disease. They can be accessed via a smartphone, tablet or desktop. 

Beliveau explains that their business model is a significant step forward for continuing medical education. "It distills emerging medicine in the most practical manner, so it can be delivered and practiced the very next day." 

"K2P helps close providers’ knowledge gaps with smart accessible tools, with the goal of empowering them to practice to the best of their ability and improve outcomes. The platform also empowers hospitals and healthcare systems to assess the current knowledge level of their medical teams and provide personalised learning to meet specific learning needs of various members of the team, including specialists." 

In addition to its existing curriculum, earlier this year they launched CurrentMD COVID in response to the coronavirus, a new programme created to educate doctors on the front lines. "When COVID hit, we saw physicians and professionals on the frontlines struggling to diagnose and successfully treat patients infected with the virus" she explains. 

"The need for just-in-time learning had never been greater, and we needed to act swiftly to bring a solution to market. We also felt the pandemic provided an opportunity for health insurers to give back and support providers." 

To this end they partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina and providing CurrentMD COVID to 26,000 providers across the state of South Carolina for free. "The response has been amazing, 98% of users rate the content as highly relevant and we’re receiving lots of positive feedback on the tool and how it’s helping providers stay current with COVID developments."

Beliveau and her team are set to launch an additional platform focused on complex diseases in early 2021.