Digital education on chronic disease management is well received and helps in improving knowledge and skills of a healthcare professional.
Huang Z and team has conducted a study to assess the effectiveness and economic impact of digital education on diabetes management in improving the knowledge, skills, attitude, satisfaction, and competencies of healthcare professionals, as well as its impact on patient outcomes.
The study included reports of certain randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cluster RCTs, and quasi-RCTs. Google scholar, trial registries, theses, dissertations, and academic reports were used as source for obtaining all stages of publications in diabetes management. All the online as well as the offline education modalities were included in the study. Overall 12 studies met the inclusion criteria. Among them one group of RCT of blended study, digital study, are compared with one group of traditional education.
The study results showed that blended and digital education showed significantly higher knowledge and skill scores than traditional education. Patient outcomes and economic impact showed very little difference.
The study concluded that digital education is more effective in improving diabetes-related knowledge and skills in healthcare professionals than compared with traditional education.
Reference:
Huang Z, Semwal M, Lee SY, et al. Digital Health Professions Education on Diabetes Management: Systematic Review by the Digital Health Education Collaboration. J Med Internet Res. 2019;21(2):e12997. Published 2019 Feb 21.