Telemedicine in medical training in Ecuador

Abstract

Telemedicine is becoming increasingly important for medical education in Ecuador. Medical education involves medical practical training supported by Rotating Internship (RI) program at the undergraduate level and the Obligatory Rural Health Service (ORHS) program after obtaining the professional degree. RI and ORHS programs have evidenced the need to develop a direct consultation tool to improve the learning process during the RI stage in hospitals and to access a Continuous Medical Education (CME). This article discusses one experience with the use of a Telemedicine Platform (TP) used by undergraduate students and faculty doctors, testing its viability for its future application in medical training during the RI and ORHS programs. An experimental study with 124 students and 6 faculty doctors, from different medical specialties in the context of a telemedicine elective course, was designed. The use and acceptance of the TP were assessed over three 4-month period using auto-generated records of users' interactions with the platform and questionnaires. The students conducted 262 teleconsultations. The average time to write a student case report was 28.3 ± 15.0 minutes and the average time to write a faculty response was 11.60 ± 5.40 minutes. Faculty doctors highlighted the utility of the TP to transfer medical knowledge and to increase practical training during the last study levels. All surveyed students agreed that the TP was useful for their practical training. The experimental study results showed that the TP is a useful tool to be integrated as a practical teaching methodology and its use may be recommended for medical training in the RI program and to increase access to CME in the ORHS program in Ecuador.