Online Subscription Service

We are pleased to announce the launch of a paid online subscription service.

Articles will cover a variety of topics, all of them relevant to the current practice of quality management, performance improvement, risk management, patient safety, infection control, information management, and utilization management.

This collection of articles will eventually cover the entire Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) exam content outline in sufficient breadth and depth to replace the need for books.

A paid online subscription service has 10 advantages that I can think of (there are probably more):

1. Information is accessible immediately, provided Internet access is available.
2. Information is search friendly. If you are looking for information about a particular topic, you merely have to type in a key word and hit the “Enter” key. Convenience at your fingertips. It certainly beats rummaging through the pages of a physical book.
3. Users need not wait till we publish all the content in a book – we can make the information available as soon as it is written. Therefore, highly valuable content can be accessed by people who need/want it early. The subscription fee will be commensurate with the amount of information available. In other words, for relatively little content, we’ll charge a nominal fee (you won’t believe how ridiculously small this initial fee is going to be until you see it). This also has the additional benefit of allowing users to “test” the service for next to nothing.
4. Greater reach. By going online, we can deliver our knowledge and skills to a much wider audience than can be achieved through book sales alone.
5. Allows exciting multimedia-rich content – colored illustrations, instructional videos, audio material – all of which adds value to the learning experience.
6. Enables social interaction. In a web-based community, users can give feedback about what they’ve read, post questions, discuss issues, share their insights, and much more. Surely, this is a much better way to learn!
7. Information can be updated and/or revised quickly, so that the content stays current.
8. Shipping and handling costs (associated with physical books) are eliminated.
9. Most people prefer to use a laptop computer (portable) or tablet to access the web content, as opposed to carrying a book around (the latter often not being practical).
10. More environmentally friendly.

An online subscription service was first mooted late last year (2009) but we only acquired the necessary know-how and technology to make it all work in recent months.

And in case you were wondering, we’ll continue providing freebies – articles, CPHQ exam tips, and new (free) services such as CPHQ exam sample/practice questions in a web-based format (coming soon!).

In summary, an online subscription service meets the needs of many professionals looking for information on healthcare quality packaged in a convenient and cost-effective format.

Andy Teh, CPHQ