Research Center for Caries Prevention, Dentistry Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Community Oral Health Department, School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
BMC Med Educ. 2019 Nov 21;19(1):431. doi: 10.1186/s12909-019-1852-z.
Continuing education aims at assisting physicians to maintain competency and expose them to emerging issues in their field. Over the last decade, approaches to the delivery of educational content have changed dramatically as medical education at all levels is now benefitting from the use of web-based content and applications for mobile devices. The aim of the present study is to investigate through a randomized trial the effectiveness of a smart phone application to increase public health service physicians' (PHS physicians) knowledge regarding pediatric oral health care.
Five of all seven DHCs (District Health Center) in Tehran, which were under the supervision of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Iran University of Medical Sciences, were selected for our study. Physicians of one DHC had participated in a pilot study. All PHS physicians in the other four centers were invited to the current study on a voluntary basis (n = 107). They completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding their knowledge, attitudes, practice in pediatric dentistry, and background. PHS physicians were assigned randomly to intervention and control groups; those in the intervention group, received a newly designed evidence-based smartphone application, and those in the control group received a booklet, a CME seminar, and a pamphlet. A post-intervention survey was administered 4 months later and t-test and repeated measures ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) were performed to measure the difference in the PHS physicians' knowledge, attitude and practice.
In both groups, the mean knowledge scores were significantly higher (p-Value < 0.001) in post-intervention data compared to those at baseline. Similar results existed in attitude and practice scores. Although the scores in knowledge in the intervention group indicating potentially greater improvement when compared to those of the control group, the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant (dif: 0.84, 95% CI - 0.35 to 2.02).
In the light of the limitations of the present study, smart phone applications could improve knowledge, attitude and practice in physicians although this method was not superior to the conventional method of CME.
Our clinical trial had been registered in Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (registration code: IRCT2016091029765N1).
继续教育旨在帮助医生保持胜任力，并使他们接触到所在领域的新问题。在过去的十年中，由于各级医学教育都受益于基于网络的内容和移动设备应用程序的使用，教育内容的传递方式发生了巨大变化。本研究的目的是通过一项随机试验来调查智能手机应用程序是否能提高公共卫生服务医生（PHS 医生）对儿科口腔保健知识的有效性。
在德黑兰的七家 DHC（区保健中心）中选择了五家，这些中心都由德黑兰医科大学和伊朗医科大学监督。其中一家 DHC 的医生参与了一项试点研究。其他四家中心的所有 PHS 医生都自愿参加了目前的研究（n=107）。他们填写了一份关于他们的知识、态度、儿科牙科实践和背景的自我管理问卷。PHS 医生被随机分配到干预组和对照组；干预组接受了新设计的基于证据的智能手机应用程序，对照组接受了小册子、继续教育研讨会和小册子。四个月后进行了干预后调查，并进行了 t 检验和重复测量协方差分析（Analysis of Covariance，ANCOVA），以衡量 PHS 医生知识、态度和实践的差异。
在两组中，干预后数据的平均知识得分均显著高于基线时（p 值<0.001）。在态度和实践得分中也存在类似的结果。虽然干预组的知识得分表明与对照组相比可能有更大的提高，但两组之间的差异没有统计学意义（差值：0.84，95%置信区间-0.35 至 2.02）。
鉴于本研究的局限性，智能手机应用程序可以提高医生的知识、态度和实践水平，尽管这种方法并不优于传统的继续教育方法。
我们的临床试验已在伊朗临床试验注册处（注册号：IRCT2016091029765N1）注册。
