JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Healthcare professionals are increasingly required to include telemedicine in their daily practices in the context of increasing willingness by medical establishments to treat aging populations and the development and acceptance of communication technologies. Despite this, there is a lack of specialized training, which could be remedied by simulation-based learning.

Objective:

We aimed to investigate whether simulation-based learning is suitable and effective in teaching telemedicine practices, and if so, under what conditions. We also aimed to investigate whether simulation training could respond to the particular needs of staff who are involved in a telemedicine project.

Methods:

We observed 5 telemedicine training sessions in a simulation laboratory at the University of Franche-Comté, involving a total of 29 participants. We assessed the effectiveness of the simulation-based training by evaluating the participants' understanding of the possibilities of telemedicine in their daily practices.

Results:

The participants' feedback on the training sessions was extremely positive, with the majority of participants recognizing the effectiveness of first-hand experience in improving their understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of telemedicine. A small minority remained hesitant about putting telemedicine into practice in a real-life situation.

Conclusions:

Telemedicine, particularly teleconsultation, is a source of concern for many healthcare professionals. A major advantage of teaching in a simulation laboratory is that it allows the participants to tackle their questions head-on by experiencing the reality of telemedicine in a secure environment. This means that they have a fuller picture of telemedicine, and are better able to envisage using it in practice.