Implementation of a Smartphone Application in Medical Education

NCT ID: NCT02723136

Last Updated: 2016-05-17

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

80 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2016-04-30

Study Completion Date

2016-05-31

Brief Summary

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This study addresses the effectiveness of a smartphone application to improve academic performance among medical students. Participants will be randomised to receive an application developed by a team of physicians and engineers, designed to review key concepts in internal medicine and its subspecialties. The primary outcome will be the number of correct answers in a multiple choice test 4 weeks after randomisation.

Detailed Description

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Smartphones are devices that are commonly used by medical professionals. Their adoption by students and physicians is increasing, with reported use rates of roughly 85%. Reasons behind these implementation rates stem from their versatility, since this technology provides mobile communications and advanced informatics in a handheld device that can be used at the bedside. However, data regarding their use in medical education is scarce.

This study aims to address whether a smartphone application designed to review key concepts in internal medicine and its subspecialties might increase the overall academic performance of medical students. Eligible participants will be interns in their final year of study who own a smartphone with an operating system based in Android® or iOS®. Only those that do not wish to participate will be excluded from this trial.

All participants will undergo a baseline test aimed at addressing their knowledge of internal medicine and its subspecialties. Multiple choice questions will be used in this test, which have been developed by a team of internists with 5 years experience in formulating them. These questions have also been designed to resemble a national examination that is required to practice medicine in the Chilean Public Health System, and have shown a good correlation with performance in the latter exam in previous reports. In order to optimise adherence, the application will also provide feedback to its user, showing overall performance in terms of correct answers and time required to solve a clinical vignette.

After this test, participants will be randomised to receive the smartphone application by a statistician. Investigators will be kept unaware of the allocation sequence used in this trial. The contents of the application will include clinical vignettes that will review core concepts in internal medicine and its subspecialties. After 4 weeks, participants will undergo a second test and the overall performance between groups will be compared. Both outcome assessors and statisticians will be kept unaware of participant allocation. Data regarding the overall application use will be collected as well.

Conditions

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Education, Medical

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Investigators Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

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Smartphone application

Participants allocated to this arm will receive a smartphone application developed to assist and guide the study of internal medicine and its subspecialties. The application will provide feedback to participants regarding their overall performance in terms of correct answers and the overall time required to solve a clinical vignette.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Smartphone Application

Intervention Type DEVICE

Smartphone application developed by internists and engineers. Will be made available on iOS(R) and Android(R) operating systems.

Usual care

Students allocated to this arm will not receive any further assistance in studying for this trial's tests.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Smartphone Application

Smartphone application developed by internists and engineers. Will be made available on iOS(R) and Android(R) operating systems.

Intervention Type DEVICE

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Medical student coursing their internship.
* Owns a smartphone with an Android® or iOs®-based operating system

Exclusion Criteria

* Refusal to participate.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Laboratorio de Ingeniería y Tecnología (LABITEC)

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Universidad de Valparaiso

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Felipe Martinez

Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Felipe Martinez, M.D., M.Sc.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Universidad de Valparaiso

Locations

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Campus de la Salud, Universidad de Valparaiso

Reñaca, Viña Del Mar, Chile

Site Status

Countries

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Chile

References

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Mosa AS, Yoo I, Sheets L. A systematic review of healthcare applications for smartphones. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2012 Jul 10;12:67. doi: 10.1186/1472-6947-12-67.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22781312 (View on PubMed)

Shah J, Haq U, Bashir A, Shah SA. Awareness of academic use of smartphones and medical apps among medical students in a private medical college? J Pak Med Assoc. 2016 Feb;66(2):184-6.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26819165 (View on PubMed)

Baumgart DC. Smartphones in clinical practice, medical education, and research. Arch Intern Med. 2011 Jul 25;171(14):1294-6. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.320. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 21788549 (View on PubMed)

Rung A, Warnke F, Mattheos N. Investigating the use of smartphones for learning purposes by Australian dental students. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2014 Apr 30;2(2):e20. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.3120.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25099261 (View on PubMed)

O'Connor P, Byrne D, Butt M, Offiah G, Lydon S, Mc Inerney K, Stewart B, Kerin MJ. Interns and their smartphones: use for clinical practice. Postgrad Med J. 2014 Feb;90(1060):75-9. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2013-131930. Epub 2013 Nov 15.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 24243966 (View on PubMed)

Related Links

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http://www.eunacom.cl/

National Examination that enables physicians to practice medicine in the public health system

Other Identifiers

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CEC098-16

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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