Journal of telemedicine and telecare
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We conducted a postal survey of 140 family and community specialist physicians in a predominantly rural area which had received clinical telemedicine services and videoconferenced continuing medical education (CME) for two years. The questionnaire contained 46 items. The response rate was 47%. ⋯ In relation to their decision to stay in their community for at least one year, respondents rated telemedicine lower in importance than all but one of 17 other factors expected to influence physician recruitment and retention in rural communities. The influences on physician rural recruitment and retention are complex. However, telemedicine was used more frequently by the more rural physicians, and there was a relationship between higher usage and higher ratings of its value as a community support.
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We evaluated the use of tele-education to provide an induction programme for accident and emergency senior house officers (SHOs) in three remote locations, and compared their performance with that of SHOs receiving the same induction programme in the conventional manner. Both groups of doctors performed similarly in a pre-course multiple-choice question (MCQ) paper, and showed comparable improvement following the induction programme lectures. ⋯ Tele-education might allow doctors based in peripheral units similar access to high-quality teaching to that enjoyed by those in larger hospitals. Further experience and evaluation are required to optimize this method of education delivery.
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We studied pre-hospital notification and the quality of data received from ambulance crews transporting seriously ill or injured patients to an accident and emergency department. During a two-month study period, pre-hospital notification was received for 54 patients. However, the department was notified about only 25 of 62 patients (40%) who, on arrival by ambulance, were triaged as emergencies. Despite developing a data protocol for emergency pre-hospital communication and being equipped to receive emergency ambulance calls directly, many such patients still arrived either unannounced or described in insufficient detail to allow appropriate preparations to be made for them.
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The current trend among many universities is to increase the number of courses available online. However, there are fundamental problems in transferring traditional education courses to virtual formats. Delivering current curricula in an online format does not assist in overcoming the negative effects on student motivation which are inherent in providing information passively. ⋯ Thirty distance-learning students undertook postgraduate courses in e-health delivered via the Internet (asynchronous communication). Data collected via online student surveys indicated that the PBL format was both flexible and interesting. PBL has the potential to increase the quality of the educational experience of students in online environments.