The role of eLearning in health management and leadership capacity building in health system: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundHealth leadership and management are essential for ensuring resilient health systems. Relevant training opportunities are often scarce, and the use of digital education could help address this gap. Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of eLearning for healthcare leadership and management capacity building.MethodsWe performed a systematic review on the effectiveness of eLearning for health leadership and management training. We also reviewed literature on relevant competencies and training programmes. We conceptualise the role of health leadership and management capacity building in health system strengthening and explore the use of eLearning in this area.ResultsNo evidence was found on the effectiveness of eLearning for health leadership and management capacity guiding. Evidence on health leadership and management education effectiveness in general is scarce and descriptive and reports learning outcomes. We explore how various forms of eLearning can help meet specific requirements of health leadership and management training.ConclusionsLiterature on the effectiveness of health leadership and management education is scarce. The use of eLearning could support this type of training by making it more accessible and tailored. Future research should be carried out in diverse settings, assume experimental designs, evaluate the use of information technology and report health system outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12960-018-0305-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Digital Education in Health Professions: The Need for Overarching Evidence Synthesis

“…When performing these systematic reviews [10-12,14,20-22,24,25], we faced numerous challenges and observed important limitations of the evidence. We found a lack of conceptual frameworks and unclear classifications and definitions to guide evidence syntheses in this area.…”

“…In addition, we adopted alternative approaches to literature synthesis, keeping in mind the needs of various stakeholders in health professions education [34]. We have focused our evidence synthesis on digital education for a specific topic or condition (eg, smoking cessation [20], diabetes [21], domestic violence, and antibiotic management), discipline (eg, dermatology [10], pediatrics, geriatrics, leadership, and management [14]), roles of health professionals (eg, medical doctors [18], medical students [17], and preregistration [undergraduate] and postregistration [postgraduate] health professionals [11]), pedagogical foundations with relevant technology applications (eg, digital problem-based learning [35]), and type of outcome (eg, cognitive skills such as communication or diagnostic skills) [12].…”

“…The majority of studies presented postintervention data instead of mean change scores. As SMD does not allow for pooling of both change and postintervention scores, we decided to use postintervention mean scores for all reviews [10-12,14,16,20-22,24,25,27,35]. For dichotomous data, we calculated odds ratios, risk ratios, or hazard ratios along with 95% CIs and P values.…”

“…We also considered performing sensitivity analyses by removing, for example, the high-risk-of-bias studies or studies with a small sample size to investigate their impact on the outcomes. However, performing the prespecified subgroup and sensitivity analyses was unfeasible for all reviews [10-12,14,20-22,24,25,27,35] because of the unequal distribution, limited information, and insufficient number of studies in respective subgroups, comparisons, and outcomes.…”

Digital Education for the Management of Chronic Wounds in Health Care Professionals: Protocol for a Systematic Review by the Digital Health Education Collaboration

“…It can also be delivered as a stand-alone instructional method or as a blended-learning approach, combining elements of digital education with traditional, face-to-face learning [3]. Digital education comprises a wide range of interventions that can be broadly divided into the following [4-6]:…”