Impact of an online course on enhancing the diagnosis of Chagas disease in Latin America.

Abstract

Chagas disease poses a public health problem in Latin America, and the electrocardiogram is a crucial tool in the diagnosis and monitoring of this pathology. In this context, the aim of this study was to quantify the change in the ability to detect electrocardiographic patterns among healthcare professionals after completing a virtual course. An asynchronous virtual course with seven pre-recorded classes was conducted. Participants answered the same questionnaire at the beginning and end of the training. Based on these responses, pre and post-test results for each participant were compared. The study included 1656 participants from 21 countries; 87.9% were physicians, 5.2% nurses, 4.1% technicians, and 2.8% medical students. Initially, 3.1% answered at least 50% of the pre-test questions correctly, a proportion that increased to 50.4% after the course (p=0.001). Regardless of their baseline characteristics, 82.1% of course attendees improved their answers after completing the course. The implementation of an asynchronous online course on electrocardiography in Chagas disease enhanced the skills of both medical and non-medical personnel to recognize this condition.