Abstract

RODRIGUEZ-PADIAL, Luis; CACHEIRO-GONZALEZ, María Luz  and  MEDINA-RIVILLA, Antonio. Knowledge and use of IT in medical lifelong learning. FEM (Ed. impresa) [online]. 2015, vol.18, n.4, pp.283-291. ISSN 2014-9840.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S2014-98322015000500010.

Introduction. Information technologies (IT) have contributed to scientific and social development and play an essential role in teaching and in continuing medical education (CME). Although IT have been used, they have a number of limitations that should be known and corrected to improve implementation. The aim of this study was to know the degree of knowledge and application of IT in CME, and the advantages and disadvantages that doctors see on them. Subjects and methods. A questionnaire hosted on the Internet website of the Signo Foundation was used and an email was sent to request information from doctors about IT in CME. Statistical analysis of the results was performed. Results. Information was obtained from 661 individuals, 56.7% of whom were male. The average age was 48.9 years, 30.6% was living in the province of Toledo and 60% were on clinical work. Most (76%) have experience in CME, both as students (54%) and as teachers (19%). The inclusion of multimedia materials (86.1%), good organization of the course (76.1%) and usability (74%) are the most valued aspects of IT. The need of student effort and consistency (59%), language other than Spanish (39.6%), the difficulty in assessing learning (35.5%) and limited interaction between students and teachers (23.6%) were the greatest difficulties reported. Twitter and Facebook were not frequently used. Conclusions. This experienced group in the use of IT in CME acknowledges clear advantages of these techniques, but also pointed out some disadvantages which should be solved to improve implementation.

Keywords : Continuous medical education; Information technologies; Teaching.

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