RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.
Snehita Women's Health Foundation, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
Oncologist. 2021 Dec;26(12):e2192-e2199. doi: 10.1002/onco.13904. Epub 2021 Jul 27.
Mobile health (mHealth)-based oncology education can be a powerful tool for providing cancer screening knowledge to physicians, as mobile technology is widely available and inexpensive. We developed a mobile application (M-OncoED) to educate physicians on cancer screening and tested the acceptability, utility, and cost of two different approaches to recruit physicians.
M-OncoED was designed to perform pre- and postlearning assessments through the in-built quizzes; present case studies and educational materials for cervical, breast, and oral cancer screening; collect responses to interactive queries; document module completion; send reminders and alerts; and track user metrics, including number of sessions to complete each module and time spent per session. We tested two recruitment approaches: a broad-scale recruitment group, for which we relied on e-mails, messaging apps (e.g., WhatsApp), and phone calls, and the targeted recruitment group, for which we conducted a face-to-face meeting for the initial invitation.
Overall, about 35% of those invited in the targeted group completed the course compared with about 3% in the broad-based recruitment group. The targeted recruitment approach was more cost-efficient ($55.33 vs. $109.43 per person). Cervical cancer screening knowledge increased by about 30 percentage points, and breast cancer screening knowledge increased by 10 percentage points. There was no change in knowledge for oral cancer scorings.
This study has demonstrated the feasibility and utility of using an mHealth app to educate physicians. A more intensive hands-on recruitment approach is likely required to engage physicians to download and complete the app. Future studies should assess the impact of mHealth tools on physician behavior and patient outcomes.
Mobile health (mHealth)-based oncology education can be a powerful tool for providing cancer screening knowledge to physicians, as mobile technology is widely available and inexpensive. This study has demonstrated the feasibility and utility of using an mHealth app to educate physicians and illustrates the type of recruitment approach (face-to-face) that is likely required to incentivize physicians to download the app and complete the training.
移动医疗（mHealth）为基于移动技术的癌症筛查知识教育提供了一个有力工具，因为移动技术广泛可用且价格低廉。我们开发了一款移动应用程序（M-OncoED），用于对医生进行癌症筛查教育，并测试了两种不同招募医生方法的可接受性、实用性和成本。
M-OncoED 旨在通过内置测验进行学习前和学习后的评估；呈现用于宫颈癌、乳腺癌和口腔癌筛查的病例研究和教育材料；收集对互动查询的回复；记录模块完成情况；发送提醒和警报；并跟踪用户指标，包括完成每个模块的会话次数和每次会话花费的时间。我们测试了两种招募方法：广泛的招募群体，我们依靠电子邮件、消息应用程序（如 WhatsApp）和电话进行招募；以及目标群体的招募，我们通过面对面的会议进行初始邀请。
总体而言，目标群体中约有 35%的受邀者完成了课程，而在广泛招募群体中约有 3%的人完成了课程。目标群体的招募方法更具成本效益（每人 55.33 美元，而广泛招募群体为每人 109.43 美元）。宫颈癌筛查知识增加了约 30 个百分点，乳腺癌筛查知识增加了 10 个百分点。口腔癌筛查知识没有变化。
本研究证明了使用移动医疗应用程序教育医生的可行性和实用性。为了吸引医生下载并完成应用程序，可能需要更密集的实际招募方法。未来的研究应评估移动医疗工具对医生行为和患者结果的影响。
移动医疗（mHealth）为基于移动技术的癌症筛查知识教育提供了一个有力工具，因为移动技术广泛可用且价格低廉。本研究证明了使用移动医疗应用程序教育医生的可行性和实用性，并说明了可能需要（面对面）这种类型的招募方法来激励医生下载应用程序并完成培训。
