Digital education for health professionals: An evidence map, conceptual framework and research agenda
File(s)PDF (2).pdf (926.36 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Tudor Car, Lorainne
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Health professions education has undergone major changes with the advent and adoption of digital technologies worldwide. To enable robust and relevant research in digital health professions education, it is essential to map the existing evidence, identify gaps and research priorities.
Methods
We searched for systematic reviews on digital education of practicing and student healthcare professionals. We searched Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, ERIC, CINAHL, and grey literature sources from January 2014 to July 2020. Two authors independently screened the studies, extracted the data, and synthesized the findings. We outlined the key characteristics of the included reviews, the quality of the evidence they synthesized, and recommendations for future research. We mapped the empiric findings and research recommendations against a newly developed conceptual framework.
Results
We identified 77 eligible systematic reviews. All included experimental studies and evaluated the effectiveness of digital education interventions in different healthcare disciplines or of different digital education modalities. Most reviews included studies on various digital education modalities (N=22), virtual reality (N=19) and online education (N=10). Most reviews focused on health professions education in general (N=36), surgery (N=13) and nursing (N=11). The reviews mainly assessed participants’ skills (N=51) and knowledge (N=49) and included data from high-income countries (N=53). Our novel conceptual framework of digital health professions education comprises six key domains (context, infrastructure, education, learners, research, and quality improvement) and 16 subdomains. Finally, we identified in these reviews 61 unique questions for future research; these mapped to framework domains of education (29 recommendations), context (17), infrastructure (9), learners (3), and research (3).
Conclusions
We have identified a large number of research questions regarding digital education, that collectively reflect a diverse and comprehensive research agenda. Our conceptual framework will help educators and researchers plan, develop, and study digital education. More evidence from developing countries is needed.
Health professions education has undergone major changes with the advent and adoption of digital technologies worldwide. To enable robust and relevant research in digital health professions education, it is essential to map the existing evidence, identify gaps and research priorities.
Methods
We searched for systematic reviews on digital education of practicing and student healthcare professionals. We searched Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, ERIC, CINAHL, and grey literature sources from January 2014 to July 2020. Two authors independently screened the studies, extracted the data, and synthesized the findings. We outlined the key characteristics of the included reviews, the quality of the evidence they synthesized, and recommendations for future research. We mapped the empiric findings and research recommendations against a newly developed conceptual framework.
Results
We identified 77 eligible systematic reviews. All included experimental studies and evaluated the effectiveness of digital education interventions in different healthcare disciplines or of different digital education modalities. Most reviews included studies on various digital education modalities (N=22), virtual reality (N=19) and online education (N=10). Most reviews focused on health professions education in general (N=36), surgery (N=13) and nursing (N=11). The reviews mainly assessed participants’ skills (N=51) and knowledge (N=49) and included data from high-income countries (N=53). Our novel conceptual framework of digital health professions education comprises six key domains (context, infrastructure, education, learners, research, and quality improvement) and 16 subdomains. Finally, we identified in these reviews 61 unique questions for future research; these mapped to framework domains of education (29 recommendations), context (17), infrastructure (9), learners (3), and research (3).
Conclusions
We have identified a large number of research questions regarding digital education, that collectively reflect a diverse and comprehensive research agenda. Our conceptual framework will help educators and researchers plan, develop, and study digital education. More evidence from developing countries is needed.
Date Issued
2022-03-17
Date Acceptance
2021-11-21
Citation
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2022, 24 (3), pp.1-21
ISSN
1438-8871
Publisher
JMIR Publications
Start Page
1
End Page
21
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Volume
24
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
©Lorainne Tudor Car, Selina Poon, Bhone Myint Kyaw, David A Cook, Victoria Ward, Rifat Atun, Azeem Majeed, Jamie
Johnston, Rianne M J J van der Kleij, Mariam Molokhia, Florian V Wangenheim, Martin Lupton, Niels Chavannes, Onyema
Ajuebor, Charles G Prober, Josip Car. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org),
17.03.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic
information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must
be included.
Johnston, Rianne M J J van der Kleij, Mariam Molokhia, Florian V Wangenheim, Martin Lupton, Niels Chavannes, Onyema
Ajuebor, Charles G Prober, Josip Car. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org),
17.03.2022. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic
information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must
be included.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.jmir.org/2022/3/e31977/
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Health Care Sciences & Services
Medical Informatics
digital education
health professions education
evidence map
systematic review
research questions
conceptual framework
mobile phone
MEDICAL-EDUCATION
NURSING-EDUCATION
SURGICAL EDUCATION
SIMULATION
SKILLS
SURGERY
QUALITY
SATISFACTION
METAANALYSIS
PERFORMANCE
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Health Care Sciences & Services
Medical Informatics
digital education
health professions education
evidence map
systematic review
research questions
conceptual framework
mobile phone
NURSING-EDUCATION
SURGICAL EDUCATION
MEDICAL-EDUCATION
SIMULATION
SURGERY
QUALITY
SKILLS
SATISFACTION
PERFORMANCE
KNOWLEDGE
conceptual framework
digital education
evidence map
health professions education
mobile phone
research questions
systematic review
Education, Distance
Health Education
Health Personnel
Humans
Virtual Reality
Humans
Health Education
Education, Distance
Health Personnel
Virtual Reality
08 Information and Computing Sciences
11 Medical and Health Sciences
17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
Medical Informatics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-03-17