Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: One of the Cochrane Collaborations (CC) key principle is to
promoting access by wide dissemination of the outputs of CC. Post-graduate education (PGE) is the most appropriate field for dissemination EBM information. Traditional forms of the PGE do not completely satisfy of physicians. It is especially evident in low income countries with large territories. Distance education (DE) and Internet technology are promising forms for providing of CC outputs.
Objectives: To summarize the experience in dissemination the CC outputs by post-graduate distance education program in low income countries (Russia and former USSR).
Methods: First medical Internet centre of DE in Russia and CIS was founded under the auspices of the Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Smolensk State Medical Academy with support of the USAID on the basis of the web-site for medical professionals http://www.antibiotic.ru. All information on www.antibiotic.ru is available for unrestricted use free-of-charge and based on the principles of EBM. The body of the first DE program consists of 29 specially developed topics in field of the antimicrobial chemotherapy divided into 3 levels. All of them were developed by using information from CC reviews. The first topic was developed for explanation the basic principles of EBM and contains the information about CC and Cochrane Library.
For the detection of actuality of DE for physicians the on-line survey was performed on the www.antibiotic.ru. For the evaluation the changes in the level of knowledge in process of training the results of preliminary tests (before start the DE) were compared with the final test (after finishing the DE).
Results: 491 participants took part in on-line survey Actuality of DE (using Internet) for Russian physicians . 309 respondents (63%) answered Yes, definitely! , 57 (11.6%) Possible , 48 (9.8%) Doubtfully, not everyone has access to Internet , 67 (13.7%) No, physicians are not ready to learn via Internet and 10 (2%) I don t know, I am not a physician .
Since the implementation of the project, 87 doctors from 12 Russian regions have been trained using DE technology. Analysis of the DE results revealed the obvious increase in the number of the correct answers given by students during their preliminary test (62.6%) and the final exam (88.7% of correct answers), confirming the effectiveness of the DE. After passing the final examination all physicians received the official state certificate confirming the improvement of knowledge.
Conclusions: DE program is effective form of the dissemination of CC outputs and increasing the level of physicians knowledge in EBM. Electronic format allows to regularly update information and it is enough inexpensive form of the promoting access to CC outputs.72.8% of the Russian physicians suppose that DE (using Internet) is actuality form of PGE for Russians.
promoting access by wide dissemination of the outputs of CC. Post-graduate education (PGE) is the most appropriate field for dissemination EBM information. Traditional forms of the PGE do not completely satisfy of physicians. It is especially evident in low income countries with large territories. Distance education (DE) and Internet technology are promising forms for providing of CC outputs.
Objectives: To summarize the experience in dissemination the CC outputs by post-graduate distance education program in low income countries (Russia and former USSR).
Methods: First medical Internet centre of DE in Russia and CIS was founded under the auspices of the Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Smolensk State Medical Academy with support of the USAID on the basis of the web-site for medical professionals http://www.antibiotic.ru. All information on www.antibiotic.ru is available for unrestricted use free-of-charge and based on the principles of EBM. The body of the first DE program consists of 29 specially developed topics in field of the antimicrobial chemotherapy divided into 3 levels. All of them were developed by using information from CC reviews. The first topic was developed for explanation the basic principles of EBM and contains the information about CC and Cochrane Library.
For the detection of actuality of DE for physicians the on-line survey was performed on the www.antibiotic.ru. For the evaluation the changes in the level of knowledge in process of training the results of preliminary tests (before start the DE) were compared with the final test (after finishing the DE).
Results: 491 participants took part in on-line survey Actuality of DE (using Internet) for Russian physicians . 309 respondents (63%) answered Yes, definitely! , 57 (11.6%) Possible , 48 (9.8%) Doubtfully, not everyone has access to Internet , 67 (13.7%) No, physicians are not ready to learn via Internet and 10 (2%) I don t know, I am not a physician .
Since the implementation of the project, 87 doctors from 12 Russian regions have been trained using DE technology. Analysis of the DE results revealed the obvious increase in the number of the correct answers given by students during their preliminary test (62.6%) and the final exam (88.7% of correct answers), confirming the effectiveness of the DE. After passing the final examination all physicians received the official state certificate confirming the improvement of knowledge.
Conclusions: DE program is effective form of the dissemination of CC outputs and increasing the level of physicians knowledge in EBM. Electronic format allows to regularly update information and it is enough inexpensive form of the promoting access to CC outputs.72.8% of the Russian physicians suppose that DE (using Internet) is actuality form of PGE for Russians.