Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jul 26, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 15, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
COVID-19’s Effect on Medical Students’ Digital Health Perceptions and Intentions
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of digital health (dHealth) technologies in medical practice. Despite this, medical curricula often provide limited exposure to these technologies.
Objective:
This study investigates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students’ intentions to integrate dHealth technologies into their future practice.
Methods:
We employed a two-phase survey at the University of Montreal’s medical school to assess changes in perceptions before (N=184) and after (N=138) the pandemic. The survey used component-based structural equation modeling (SEM) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to analyze our dataset.
Results:
Findings indicate limited exposure to dHealth technologies within the medical curriculum. However, there was a strong consensus on the necessity of formal dHealth training. A notable shift towards the acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) and telehealth tools was observed, emphasizing the pandemic’s significant role in altering students' views on these technologies.
Conclusions:
The study advocates for the integration of formal dHealth training in medical curricula to better prepare future physicians for the demands of an increasingly digital healthcare landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced medical students' perceptions, highlighting the urgent need to adapt medical education to include comprehensive dHealth training.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.