JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical schools worldwide are accelerating the introduction of digital health (encompassing medical, clinical or health informatics) courses into their curricula.

Objective:

This review collated and analyzed the literature evaluating digital health education for medical students to inform development of future courses and identify areas where curricula may need to be strengthened.

Methods:

We carried out a scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute’s guidance and reported in line with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We searched six major bibliographic databases and grey literature sources for the articles published from January 2000 to November 2019. Two authors independently screened the retrieved citations and extracted the data from the included studies. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus discussion between the authors. The findings were analyzed using thematic analysis and presented narratively.

Results:

A total of 34 studies focusing on different digital courses were included in this review. Most (n=22) were published from 2010 to 2019 and originated from the US (n=20). The reported digital health courses were mostly elective (n=20), integrated into the existing curriculum (n=24) and focused mainly on medical informatics (n=17). Most of the courses targeted medical students from first to third year (n=17) and the duration of the courses ranged from an hour to three academic years. Most (n=22) reported the use of blended education. Six of 34 delivered courses entirely digitally using online modules, offline learning, Massive Open Online Courses, and virtual patient simulations. The reported courses used various assessment approaches such as paper-based assessments, in person observations and/or online-based assessment. Thirty studies evaluated courses mostly using uncontrolled before and after design and generally reported improvements in students’ learning outcomes.

Conclusions:

Digital health courses reported in the literature were mostly elective, focused on a single area of digital health and lacked robust evaluation. They had diverse delivery, development, and assessment approaches. There is an urgent need for high-quality studies evaluating teaching of digital health.