Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review
BackgroundThe last 25 years have seen enormous progression in digital technologies across the whole of the health service, including health education. The rapid evolution and use of web-based and digital techniques have been significantly transforming this field since the beg...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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JMIR Publications
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Medical Internet Research |
| Online Access: | https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e60312 |
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| author | Oluwadamilola Ogundiya Thahmina Jasmine Rahman Ioan Valnarov-Boulter Tim Michael Young |
| author_facet | Oluwadamilola Ogundiya Thahmina Jasmine Rahman Ioan Valnarov-Boulter Tim Michael Young |
| author_sort | Oluwadamilola Ogundiya |
| collection | DOAJ |
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BackgroundThe last 25 years have seen enormous progression in digital technologies across the whole of the health service, including health education. The rapid evolution and use of web-based and digital techniques have been significantly transforming this field since the beginning of the new millennium. These advancements continue to progress swiftly, even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic.
ObjectiveThis narrative review aims to outline and discuss the developments that have taken place in digital medical education across the defined time frame. In addition, evidence for potential opportunities and challenges facing digital medical education in the near future was collated for analysis.
MethodsLiterature reviews were conducted using PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Embase. The participants and learners in this study included medical students, physicians in training or continuing professional development, nurses, paramedics, and patients.
ResultsEvidence of the significant steps in the development of digital medical education in the past 25 years was presented and analyzed in terms of application, impact, and implications for the future. The results were grouped into the following themes for discussion: learning management systems; telemedicine (in digital medical education); mobile health; big data analytics; the metaverse, augmented reality, and virtual reality; the COVID-19 pandemic; artificial intelligence; and ethics and cybersecurity.
ConclusionsMajor changes and developments in digital medical education have occurred from around the start of the new millennium. Key steps in this journey include technical developments in teleconferencing and learning management systems, along with a marked increase in mobile device use for accessing learning over this time. While the pace of evolution in digital medical education accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, further rapid progress has continued since the resolution of the pandemic. Many of these changes are currently being widely used in health education and other fields, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, providing significant future potential. The opportunities these technologies offer must be balanced against the associated challenges in areas such as cybersecurity, the integrity of web-based assessments, ethics, and issues of digital privacy to ensure that digital medical education continues to thrive in the future. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6a348788fe764b5bab2f02b1626c9c39 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1438-8871 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Medical Internet Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-6a348788fe764b5bab2f02b1626c9c392024-12-19T19:00:37ZengJMIR PublicationsJournal of Medical Internet Research1438-88712024-12-0126e6031210.2196/60312Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative ReviewOluwadamilola Ogundiyahttps://orcid.org/0009-0002-6730-7480Thahmina Jasmine Rahmanhttps://orcid.org/0009-0003-9602-6685Ioan Valnarov-Boulterhttps://orcid.org/0009-0002-8038-9310Tim Michael Younghttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6195-070X BackgroundThe last 25 years have seen enormous progression in digital technologies across the whole of the health service, including health education. The rapid evolution and use of web-based and digital techniques have been significantly transforming this field since the beginning of the new millennium. These advancements continue to progress swiftly, even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic. ObjectiveThis narrative review aims to outline and discuss the developments that have taken place in digital medical education across the defined time frame. In addition, evidence for potential opportunities and challenges facing digital medical education in the near future was collated for analysis. MethodsLiterature reviews were conducted using PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Embase. The participants and learners in this study included medical students, physicians in training or continuing professional development, nurses, paramedics, and patients. ResultsEvidence of the significant steps in the development of digital medical education in the past 25 years was presented and analyzed in terms of application, impact, and implications for the future. The results were grouped into the following themes for discussion: learning management systems; telemedicine (in digital medical education); mobile health; big data analytics; the metaverse, augmented reality, and virtual reality; the COVID-19 pandemic; artificial intelligence; and ethics and cybersecurity. ConclusionsMajor changes and developments in digital medical education have occurred from around the start of the new millennium. Key steps in this journey include technical developments in teleconferencing and learning management systems, along with a marked increase in mobile device use for accessing learning over this time. While the pace of evolution in digital medical education accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, further rapid progress has continued since the resolution of the pandemic. Many of these changes are currently being widely used in health education and other fields, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, providing significant future potential. The opportunities these technologies offer must be balanced against the associated challenges in areas such as cybersecurity, the integrity of web-based assessments, ethics, and issues of digital privacy to ensure that digital medical education continues to thrive in the future.https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e60312 |
| spellingShingle | Oluwadamilola Ogundiya Thahmina Jasmine Rahman Ioan Valnarov-Boulter Tim Michael Young Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review Journal of Medical Internet Research |
| title | Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review |
| title_full | Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review |
| title_fullStr | Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review |
| title_short | Looking Back on Digital Medical Education Over the Last 25 Years and Looking to the Future: Narrative Review |
| title_sort | looking back on digital medical education over the last 25 years and looking to the future narrative review |
| url | https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e60312 |
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