Rob Moran is a founding Director of HealthProfessionalCPD.  He holds degree qualifications in human physiology, clinical science and a Master of Health Science (Osteopathy).  He’s an educator, researcher and influencer of student minds. He works primarily as a lecturer and researcher within the Department of Osteopathy at Unitec Institute of Technology (Auckland, NZ) where he is heavily involved in undergraduate teaching and postgraduate research supervision.  He has 10 years experience in teaching musculoskeletal examination, clinical diagnosis, pain science, exercise rehabilitation, research methods and critical thinking.

In Rob’s words:

With my colleague Nic Lucas, I was a founding editor of the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine and maintain an active role in the osteopathic and manual therapy research community, including reviewing for several peer reviewed journals such as Manual Therapy and Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care.

I’ve always been a voracious learner with a wide range of interests including treatment of musculoskeletal complaints, health behaviors, exercise rehabilitation and many others.  Simply put, I’m addicted to consuming, producing and distributing information that’s useful for health practitioners.  At any one time I’m usually juggling reviewing a research paper, writing something for a journal, reading several books, consuming a pile of journal articles and sampling from the best blogs in quick rotation.

 When the internet became widely available in the early 1990s it was apparent that education and learning would never be the same again.  Suddenly information was cheap and so available but it felt a little like trying to drink from a fire-hose.  Figuring out how to drink from the torrent without being blown [some say he lost all his hair in one particularly nasty incident] away was going to require some skills in figuring out what was essential and what could be discarded.

For me, this was the start of developing critical thinking skills as a way of navigating the high volume of existing, new and emerging information that all healthcare practitioners need to keep up with…now it’s become a passion – assisting other people with discovering knowledge that’s relevant to their practice. 

Rob addresses the question about why he’s involved in online education this way:

“Getting involved with online education provides an opportunity to connect with people I couldn’t otherwise access … I really think there are huge benefits in being able to connect with expert presenters in a way that’s convenient. When Nic and I recognized together that online education was a way to make professional education accessible it was something I just had to be involved with … it combined my love of education with my desire to share knowledge that can improve practice”

Nic Lucas is a founding Director of HealthProfessionalCPD.  He has qualifications in pain medicine, clinical epidemiology, and osteopathy, and is a PhD Research Fellow at the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney.

He is a founding editor of the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine, published by Elsevier, and which is the largest international journal for osteopaths.  It is the official journal of the General Osteopathic Council (UK), Australian Osteopathic Association, the Ontario Association of Osteopaths, and is recognised by the British Osteopathic Association.

He has been involved in tertiary and private education for over 15 years and has taught at Universities and colleges in Australia and New Zealand.  His main area of teaching and research is musculoskeletal medicine, pain neurobiology, and diagnosis.

Nic adopted online learning and education early in his career as an academic, starting with simply placing notes online in advance of lectures, to enable students to be able to focus on the insights he brought to his lectures, rather than the information.  This evolved to include online discussion and tutorial groups and the development of entire online learning modules for Unitec, New Zealand.

Nic explains further …

“First and foremost, I am dedicated to my own learning.  If I’m honest, it’s the reason I get up in the morning. I’m insatiable.  Learning is everything to me – because everything we do is a result of our brains experiencing the external world and our internal world, and then making sense of it.  For me, learning can sometimes be as enjoyable as the outcome obtained by applying what I’ve learned.  I find it euphoric to move from ignorance to competence.

I bring my own learning to life by teaching and sharing what I’ve learned.  I thrive on helping other people see and understand what they had not seen or understood before.  I am an imagination hunter.  Not only do I want to capture peoples’ attention, but also their imaginations.

Because I love to teach and inspire others to engage with information in the same way I do, I really value effective communication.  The way that information is presented to me has always had a significant effect on how I understand it, and how I am inspired by it.  This is why I am driven to find effective methods to communicate what I’ve learned – to teach and inspire others.

And so this is also why I am involved in online education, which is really just another channel for effective communication.  There are critics of online education, and no doubt some of their concerns may have validity.  

What I can say, however, after obtaining numerous degrees and participating in many, many ‘live’ workshops, is that many of the best learning experiences I have had, have been online.

Having found satisfaction and enjoyment in learning and teaching, unless I have working toward something, I am left with a sense of discontentment.  And this is what drives me to continue applying what I’ve learned in a practical way to effect an outcome or goal.  The continual improvement of HealthProfessionalCPD is an example of this, as is the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine – and many of the other ventures, projects and activities I’m involved in.

I measure myself not on what I learn, think or say, but on what I do.  I only feel alive when I’m putting myself through a process of change and activity – even though at times this is stressful and uncertain.  I don’t typically wait until everything is “known” before making a decision and taking action.  I get bored of high level talks that don’t result in activity.  I want to know when I can start – and then I just want to start.  I know where I’m headed, because this is something I need to know on a daily basis.”

As of August 2011, HealthProfessionalCPD will become an umbrella organisation for a number of different educational units.

OsteoProfessional is the new label for continuing education in osteopathy.

AcupunctureProfessional is the new label for continuing education in acupuncture and oriental medicine.

We we also soon be serving massage therapy community with the launch of MassageTherapyProfessional and musculoskeletal sonographers with the launch of DiagnosticImagineCPD.

As we grow each new educational unit in the organization, we will develop and create a suitable website using a unique domain.

This structure will enable HealthProfessionalCPD to deliver systematic results derived through streamlined process.