eHealth and mHealth

This brief describes the process and outcomes of a project in Nigeria that developed a standard, integrated tuberculosis (TB) supervision checklist to assess and monitor diagnostic laboratories and TB services at the facility-level in the public and private sectors, which was deployed using smartphones. [adapted from author]

This integrative review of the literature provides an in-depth analysis of the effect that educational techniques, frequency, setting and mode of delivery have on health worker learning outcomes and subsequent practice behaviors. [adapted from introduction]

This paper describes a text message-based solution that harnesses the prevalence of mobile phones coupled with several open source tools to empower para-social workers who carry the primary responsibility in providing essential services to the growing population of orphans and vulnerable children in Tanzania. [adapted from abstract]

This guide gives recommendations about how the global health eLearning courses can be used to enhance face-to-face, online, and blended training and performance support approaches by helping participants acquire and apply new knowledge and comprehension. Practical examples of how to do so are included for trainers and individual learners. [adapted from author]

This article examined the association between a mobile phone intervention and skilled delivery attendance in a resource-limited setting. [from author]

The aim of this study was to formatively evaluate a 12-week, completely online module from a South African university for medical specialists in their first year of training; assessing both the mode of delivery as well as the perceived effectiveness and usefulness. [adapted from abstract]

This article reports recent national data on mobile phone ownership and use among health workers and patients in Kenya and examine factors influencing ownership and SMS use to help guide the policy implications of mHealth. [from author]

A recent trial in Kenya showed that text-message reminders on adherence to malaria case-management sent to health workers’ mobile phones improved management of pediatric outpatients by 25 percentage points. This paper examines costs and cost-effectiveness of this intervention. [from abstract]

This paper applies a health systems perspective to guide analysis of potential challenges of scaling up mHealth for the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of community-based health services (CBS) in South Africa. This formalisation of CBS is expected to bring greater standardisation of M&E and supervision systems for community health workers. [adapted from author]

To improve the quality of health care in remote parts of Pakistan, a research project was initiated in the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan using information and communication technology to improve patient care and support continuing education of health providers (eHealth). This paper describes the experience of nurses in using eHealth in their routine practices. [from abstract]

This article describes the evolution and challenges of mHealth and addresses the potential impact of mHealth for midwives. Midwifery leadership in the field of mHealth at this early stage of its development will ensure future health programming that is relevant to the needs of women and the midwives who care for them. [adapted from abstract]

This study explored factors influencing rural and urban emergency department clinicians’ participation in a web-based knowledge exchange intervention that focused on best practice knowledge about pediatric emergency care. [from abstract]

Medical simulation is considered to bridge the gap between the classroom and clinical environment, and it enables learners, from novice to expert to practice and develop clinical skills without any fear of harm to patients. This study evaluated the effectiveness of simulation training in developing clinical skills in pre-clinical medical students. [adapted from author]

This research evaluated whether it would be feasible to use virtual patients (VPs), a learning system designed to simulate encounters between a patient and a healthcare professional, for and educational program in a medical school in Romanian, with cases in English and developed in a non-Romanian setting.

This study investigated how students and tutors perceive a blended learning approach using virtual patients as preparation for medical students for skills laboratory training. [adapted from author]

This article reports on a successful project using mobile phone technology for rapidly detecting and treating patients with malaria in a remote area of Bangladesh. [adapted from abstract]

In the face of severe faculty shortages in resource-constrained countries, medical schools look to e-learning for improved access to medical education. This paper summarizes the literature on eLearning in low- and middle-income countries, and presents the spectrum of tools and strategies used. [from abstract]

This study assessed the impact of a behavioral telehealth ethical competencies training program on behavioral health providers’ development of behavioral telehealth competency. Video vignettes evaluating the 14 competencies, self-reported competence surveys and follow-up surveys of progress on telehealth goals were utilized to assess effects of the training. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this study was to explore nursing students’ perceptions of the usefulness of supplementary biology podcasts for their learning. [from abstract]

The aim of this article was to conduct a thematic review of how mHealth projects have approached the intersection of mobile technology and public health in low- and middle-income countries and identify the promising practices and experiences learned, as well as novel and innovative approaches of how mHealth can support community health workers. [adapted from abstract]

This paper reports an evaluation of an initiative which provided trainee doctors in Wales with a library of texts on a smartphone. Within a wider context of use of information sources in the workplace, the evaluation sought to find out how, when and why the Smartphone library was used and the outcomes and impact on knowledge and practice. [from author]

This paper details the experience of developing an eLearning technology as a tool to implement competency-based medical education in Tanzania medical universities, inlcuding the background, early adoption attempts, challenges to implementation and lessons learned. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this study was to determine whether the an online eLearning resource in addition to usual teaching improved the performance of practical skills in physiotherapy students. [adapted from abstract]

This paper gives an overview of the approaches, methods and materials used in a mobile-based educational platform designed to enable health care workers involved in HIV/AIDS care in urban peripheral stations in Peru to access the state-of-the-art in HIV treatment and care. [adapted from introduction]

This paper presents eLearning as a solution for strengthening human resources for health as well as organizational capacity of regional and local nongovernmental organizations in developing countries. [from abstract]

The overall objective of this study was to conduct a prospective, randomized controlled trial to evaluate the feasibility, implementation, and effectiveness of internet based training in cognitive behavioral therapy techniques for mental health providers, including a standardized telephone-delivered supervision method. [from author]

This extensive report gathered evidence and research to see if technology could be harnessed in transformative ways to address critical gaps in community health worker (CHW) training in Sub-Saharan Africa. It covers: the importance of CHW, current approaches to CHW training, emerging evidence and opportunities. [adapted from author]

This analysis summarizes the effect of Internet-based instruction for health professions learners compared with no intervention and with non-Internet interventions. [from abstract]

Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy for depression has been proven effective when guided by a clinician, less so if unguided. This study sought to determine if guidance from a technician would be as effective as guidance from a clinician to increase the capacity of existing mental health services. [adapted from abstract]

In this study, qualitative analysis of learner feedback gathered from an online medical education curriculum was used to identify themes of learner feedback, and changes to the online curriculum in response to this feedback were tracked. Learner satisfaction and knowledge gains were then compared from before and after implementation of learner feedback. [from abstract]