Evaluation of an Online Telemedicine Course Through Facebook

NCT04173806 | Unknown DMC

• 1 other identifier: 104043
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Health professionals with adequate training are required to provide quality remote care. There are few telemedicine and telehealth training programs for doctors and medical students. On the other hand, the use of social networks (Facebook and Twitter) as a medical education tool is becoming frequent. However, there is a lack of conclusive evidence in terms of its effectiveness. The objective of the present study is to develop and evaluate a telemedicine course for resident doctors through Facebook and compare it with one through Moodle. A randomized, triple-blind, parallel block controlled trial will be conducted that tests the effectiveness of an educational intervention through Facebook compared to another control intervention using Moodle. Intervention training is a telemedicine course focused on teleconsultation provided through Facebook. Control training is the same educational content but through Moodle. The level of telemedicine knowledge of the participants before and after the intervention will be evaluated. The inferential analysis to see the association between the variables of interest will be carried out by Student's T tests or analysis of variance (ANOVA). If potential confounding factors were found, the variable will be adjusted through linear regression. The pre and post intervention analysis will be carried out with student t or wilcoxon rank test according to the normality of the data. Resident doctors who receive the telemedicine course through Facebook are expected to have a greater knowledge gain than those who take the course through Moodle.

Conditions

Telemedicine; Training

Keywords

Education, Medical; Online Social Networking; Computer User Training; Telemedicine

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Level of Knowledge about telemedicine

  Measured by automatic scoring after the participant took the tests on a web platform. The instrument is a questionnaire made up of 32 multiple-choice questions about knowledge in telemedicine focused on teleconsultation. The test is according to guidelines of the National Board of Medical Examiners of the United States. Each correct question is worth 3.125 points so the scale range will be 0-100 points in total but then it will be converted to vigesimal score from 0 to 20 points, being the passing grade 11.00.

  through study completion, an average of 1 month

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• The satisfaction assessment will be carried out through the Wang questionnaire (Likert scale)

  through study completion, an average of 1 month

Study Arms (2)

Facebook group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will be included in an online classroom through a "closed group" of Facebook to receive an asynchronous course of telemedicine.

Other: Facebook intervention

Control group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

In this group the participants are exposed to the same course of telemedicine but on the Moodle educational platform.

Other: Control Training:

Interventions

Facebook intervention OTHER

The intervention consists of the content of the course on telemedicine through a "closed group" of Facebook according to the established syllabus whose educational material is video classes, discussion forums and online questionnaires. The duration of the course will be 5 weeks, each week two classes will be uploaded to the Facebook platform in succession until the course is completed. So that the student can visualize the content progressively and continuously.

Facebook group

Control Training: OTHER

In this group the participants are exposed to the same course content and perform similar activities as the intervention group on Facebook during the same period but on the Moodle educational platform. The Moodle platform was chosen because it has been widely used in several institutions, with a large user community worldwide, with approximately 50,000 registrations in more than 200 countries and due to the many easy-to-use educational tools it offers. So it is one of the educational platforms that has demonstrated its efficiency in the medical educational field.

Control group

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Physician enrolled in the resident program of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, who has passed the first year of residence.
• Motivation to learn telemedicine and participate in educational activities during the intervention.
• Access to the internet through a computer or mobile device during the intervention of the study.

You may not qualify if:

• Resident doctors who have had some type of training in e-Health, telemedicine or telehealth.
• Rotating doctors from other national or foreign universities.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia: lead

Study Sites (1)

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Medicine School

Lima, San Martín de Porres, 15102, Peru

RECRUITING

Related Publications (11)

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  PMID: 29045204 BACKGROUND

• Celes RS, Rossi TRA, de Barros SG, Santos CML, Cardoso C. [Telehealth as state response strategy: systematic reviewLa telesalud como estrategia de respuesta del Estado: revision sistematica]. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2018 Aug 10;42:e84. doi: 10.26633/RPSP.2018.84. eCollection 2018. Portuguese.

  PMID: 31093112 BACKGROUND

• Pathipati AS, Azad TD, Jethwani K. Telemedical Education: Training Digital Natives in Telemedicine. J Med Internet Res. 2016 Jul 12;18(7):e193. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5534.

  PMID: 27405323 BACKGROUND

• van Galen LS, Wang CJ, Nanayakkara PWB, Paranjape K, Kramer MHH, Car J. Telehealth requires expansion of physicians' communication competencies training. Med Teach. 2019 Jun;41(6):714-715. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2018.1481284. Epub 2018 Jun 26.

  PMID: 29944031 BACKGROUND

• Edirippulige S, Armfield NR. Education and training to support the use of clinical telehealth: A review of the literature. J Telemed Telecare. 2017 Feb;23(2):273-282. doi: 10.1177/1357633X16632968. Epub 2016 Jul 8.

  PMID: 26892005 BACKGROUND

• dos Santos Ade F, Alves HJ, Nogueira JT, Torres RM, Melo Mdo C. Telehealth distance education course in Latin America: analysis of an experience involving 15 countries. Telemed J E Health. 2014 Aug;20(8):736-41. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2013.0291. Epub 2014 Jun 5.

  PMID: 24901742 BACKGROUND

• Nicolai L, Schmidbauer M, Gradel M, Ferch S, Anton S, Hoppe B, Pander T, von der Borch P, Pinilla S, Fischer M, Dimitriadis K. Facebook Groups as a Powerful and Dynamic Tool in Medical Education: Mixed-Method Study. J Med Internet Res. 2017 Dec 22;19(12):e408. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7990.

  PMID: 29273572 BACKGROUND

• Ghanem O, Logghe HJ, Tran BV, Huynh D, Jacob B. Closed Facebook groups and CME credit: a new format for continuing medical education. Surg Endosc. 2019 Feb;33(2):587-591. doi: 10.1007/s00464-018-6376-9. Epub 2018 Aug 13.

  PMID: 30105596 BACKGROUND

• Pander T, Pinilla S, Dimitriadis K, Fischer MR. The use of Facebook in medical education--a literature review. GMS Z Med Ausbild. 2014 Aug 15;31(3):Doc33. doi: 10.3205/zma000925. eCollection 2014.

  PMID: 25228935 BACKGROUND

• Ellaway R, Masters K. AMEE Guide 32: e-Learning in medical education Part 1: Learning, teaching and assessment. Med Teach. 2008 Jun;30(5):455-73. doi: 10.1080/01421590802108331.

  PMID: 18576185 BACKGROUND

• Masters K, Ellaway R. e-Learning in medical education Guide 32 Part 2: Technology, management and design. Med Teach. 2008 Jun;30(5):474-89. doi: 10.1080/01421590802108349.

  PMID: 18576186 BACKGROUND

Study Officials

• Cender U Quispe Juli, MD

  Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Cender U Quispe Juli, MD

CONTACT

51 95085390; cender.quispe@upch.pe

Carlos A Orellano Tuesta, MD, MSc

CONTACT

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: TRIPLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 19, 2019
• First Posted: November 22, 2019
• Study Start: November 25, 2019
• Primary Completion: February 27, 2020
• Study Completion: August 29, 2020
• Last Updated: August 31, 2020

Record last verified: 2019-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

PE (1)