Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
Cancer Education Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Ontario, Canada.
Can Med Educ J. 2023 Jun 27;14(3):41-74. doi: 10.36834/cmej.75681. eCollection 2023 Jun.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, most continuing medical education activities became virtual (VCME). The authors conducted a scoping review to synthesize the advantages and disadvantages of VCME to establish the impact of this approach on inequities that physicians face along the intersections of gender, race, and location of practice.
Guided by the methodological framework of Arksey and O'Malley, the search included six databases and was limited to studies published between January 1991 to April 2021. Eligible studies included those related to accredited/non-accredited post-certification medical education, conferences, or meetings in a virtual setting focused on physicians. Numeric and inductive thematic analyses were performed.
282 studies were included in the review. Salient advantages identified were convenience, favourable learning formats, collaboration opportunities, effectiveness at improving knowledge and clinical practices, and cost-effectiveness. Prominent disadvantages included technological barriers, poor design, cost, lack of sufficient technological skill, and time. Analysis of the studies showed that VCME was most common in the general/family practice specialty, in suburban settings, and held by countries in the Global North. A minority of studies reported on gender (35%) and race (4%).
Most studies report advantages of VCME, but disadvantages and barriers exist that are contextual to the location of practice and medical subspecialty. VCME events are largely organized by Global North countries with suboptimized accessibility for Global South attendees. A lack of reported data on gender and race reveals a limited understanding of how VCME affects vulnerable populations, prompting potential future considerations as it evolves.
随着 COVID-19 大流行，大多数继续医学教育活动都转为线上模式（VCME）。作者进行了范围综述，以综合 VCME 的优缺点，确定这种方法对医生在性别、种族和执业地点的交叉点上面临的不平等现象的影响。
在 Arksey 和 O'Malley 的方法论框架的指导下，该搜索包括六个数据库，并且仅限于 1991 年 1 月至 2021 年 4 月期间发表的研究。合格的研究包括与认证/非认证的继续教育、虚拟环境下的会议或会议相关的研究，这些会议主要针对医生。进行了数值和归纳主题分析。
共有 282 项研究被纳入综述。明显的优势包括方便、有利的学习形式、合作机会、提高知识和临床实践的有效性以及成本效益。突出的缺点包括技术障碍、设计不佳、成本、缺乏足够的技术技能和时间。对这些研究的分析表明，VCME 在一般/家庭实践专业中最常见，在郊区环境中，并且在北美国家中更为常见。少数研究报告了性别（35%）和种族（4%）。
大多数研究报告了 VCME 的优势，但也存在劣势和障碍，这些劣势和障碍与实践地点和医学专业有关。VCME 活动主要由北美国家组织，对来自南半球的参与者的可及性较差。关于性别和种族的数据报告不足，这表明对 VCME 如何影响弱势群体的理解有限，随着它的发展，可能需要进一步考虑。
