Offline digital education for post-registration health professions: a systematic review by the Digital Health Education collaboration (Preprint) (original) (raw)

BACKGROUND The shortage and disproportionate distribution of healthcare workers worldwide is further aggravated by the inadequacy of training programmes, difficulties in implementing conventional curricula, deficiencies in learning infrastructure, or a lack of essential equipment/supplies. Offline digital education has the potential to reduce the shortage and improve the quality of education. OBJECTIVE The primary objective of this systematic review (SR) was to evaluate the effectiveness of offline digital education compared with various controls in improving learners’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, satisfaction; and patient-related outcomes. The secondary objectives were (i) to assess cost-effectiveness of the interventions and (iii) to assess adverse effects of the interventions on patients and learners. METHODS We searched seven electronic databases and two trial registers for randomized controlled trials published between January 1990 and August 2017. We used gold standard Cochra...