Tackling Comprehensive Asthma Education for Providers One Breath at a Time: Evaluation of an Online Continuing Medical Education Program for Asthma

Abstract

BackgroundExponential growth of knowledge in asthma has advanced the diagnosis and treatment of personalized, phenotype- endotype-driven care in asthma leading to improved clinical outcomes. However, many knowledge and practice gaps persist among healthcare professionals. Microlearning has demonstrated efficacy in educational outcomes but is often limited by fragmentation and incomplete information. In order to integrate the benefits of microlearning into a comprehensive asthma curriculum that addresses knowledge gaps in this rapidly growing field, we built an extensive curriculum in bite-sized, “one breath at a time” portions for clinicians managing asthma. MethodsThe CHEST® Curriculum Pathway for Asthma was published online on the CHEST® learning management site in September 2022. It was derived from existing asthma education at CHEST® and was vetted by asthma experts. Pre- and post-tests, satisfaction surveys, and user engagement data were collected. ResultsIn the first 6 months, 523 participants engaged with the CHEST® Curriculum Pathway for Asthma. Participant satisfaction was high, and participants answered 68% of the knowledge pre-test correctly and 82% of the post-test correctly.1 Participants completed 82.8% of the individual videos that they opened. Completion rates for each asthma chapter ranged from 22.6% to 57.9%. DiscussionThis educational program is the first comprehensive, microlearning, online curriculum issued by a medical association on asthma. Our results suggest that the CHEST® Curriculum Pathway for Asthma was effective in improving knowledge and had high user satisfaction. Comprehensive online educational programs broken into microlearning components may be useful in other topics in pulmonary medicine.