SmartForce, a company that provides both structure and content for corporate on-line training, has announced an agreement with DigitalMed, a subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare Corporation to provide on-line education for the health care industry. DigitalMed has standardized on the SmartForce e-Learning platform as the foundation for developing health care-specific learning for health care professionals, administrators and institutions. The company claims that this is the first such "enterprise-wide" (a service specific to Tenet Healthcare)system.

Under the agreement, SmartForce and DigitalMed will deliver e-Learning to nurses, technicians, managers, and administrative staff by integrating DigitalMed content and SmartForce content into SmartForce's e-Learning platform. Tenet Healthcare will be the first organization to implement the new solution for its extended enterprise. SmartForce is also offering the service to other healthcare-related corporations, including pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and managed health care companies. In the first quarter of 2001, SmartForce entered into new customer relationships with Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Medical Center and Inova Health Systems.

The on-line learning service will primarily cover four areas: regulatory, administrative, service, and clinical content. The solution will include a learning management system that enables organizations and institutions to develop, track, and manage all on-line learning events and instructor-led training. In addition, SmartForce's e3 application architecture will allow for customization and publication of new learning programs. It also enables administrators to measure proficiency and then build targeted learning paths for individual users.

``We are extremely pleased to be forging this alliance with SmartForce,'' said Mark Schroeder, CEO of DigitalMed. ``SmartForce has developed an e-Learning platform that is unmatched in the industry.''

The high turnover of rate of professionals, technological advances in insurance and reimbursement, and the increased use of technology to reduce administrative costs and increase efficiency make keeping employees up to speed an ongoing issue. The SmartForce/DigitalMed e-Learning solution will help to address these issues in an effective learning environment which is available at the learner's convenience.