Martin Schlichte is the CEO and Founder of Lecturio, a leading e-learning platform—mainly for medical video education serving students as well as universities and medical institutions. Founded in Germany’s historic publishing center Leipzig in 2008, Lecturio advanced to one of the major players in the e-learning market in Europe. Martin studied Business Informatics and Business Administration at the University of Mannheim, Germany, the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management in Leipzig, Germany, and the Universidad Católica in Montevideo, Uruguay. At Lecturio, Martin leads the overall strategy and all product and marketing related activities of the company to make Lecturio.com the best online medical education platform on the web.
What is your background in medicine and education?
Medicine was the second topic area after Law that we built up in the German-speaking market. I saw a need to support medical students with their learning and revision burden. My own role is to ensure a superior, user-centric learning experience regarding media formats and delivery system as well as ensuring that we find and partner with the top medical educators around the world. We work with top instructors and pick them very carefully based on their reputation and their ability to teach in front of a camera.
How did you come up with the idea for Lecturio?
I always preferred listening to and watching someone competent explaining concepts versus just reading them by myself. During my studies, I missed the ability to review lectures, learn at my own pace wherever and whenever I wanted to, that is how self-steered video-learning and the “Lecturio video-format” was born. The video-based e-learning lectures receive great feedback from students and medical professionals. The learners can manage their time more flexibly, the university has a new learning resource the professors can use in structured blended learning or just make available as support.
Please describe how Lecturio has grown since it was started.
Our German product was very successful and today dominates the German medical video learning market. We looked at the global landscape in terms of focus—which turned out to be mainly “cramming for the exam”—and media formats which were typically fairly outdated. So we decided to build on the experience we gained in the German market and enrolled teaching award winning instructors from around the world, like Carlo Raj who was mentored by the famous Dr. Goljan, Prof Brown from the University College London, Prof. Meyer from the University of Western Australia and many more. The feedback from students and universities today is very rewarding to read and our user base is growing rapidly.
Today, we have a growing passionate and interdisciplinary team of over 85 people from all over the world and continue to build the best medical video education on the web.
What are 1-3 changes you’d like to see in the way we train our future clinicians?
I believe there is lots of potential for medical schools in increasing the use of formats like ours and consciously use them in blended learning concepts. E-Learning can make studying more effective for all involved, professors, students and universities.
Especially when you look globally, smartly teaching fluidity in medical concepts like we do, combined with the necessary practical training blocks, will be crucial to meet the demand for medical professionals.
There is also lots of room for improvement in the continuous medical education sector. Keeping medical professionals up to date with training is still a bit random in many countries, e.g. what counts as CME does not always fit with the actual learning needs in a given specialty. I believe that video training can play a major role in making CME more structured and efficient.
Do you have any advice for future clinicians?
It is important to enter medicine for the right reasons; medical professionals treat people, not sickness in the end. Having that part of the initial motivation makes for better doctors.
For those who are currently visiting med school: You might have heard it a 100 times but I would iterate: Start early! There is so much to learn, and many students cram it in just before the exam. With us you can make your studying a smoother learning path and you can make sure you understand concepts rather than just memorizing facts you forget a few weeks after the exam. Understanding these concepts does not only help you to solve clinical vignettes better and score high in the exams, but also makes you a better doctor. Time is the most valuable asset you have during your studies, use it wisely.
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