TITLE:

 

Usage of mobile health (mHealth) tool to support online COVID-19 training in the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

 

Neha Varun, K Aparna Sharma, Anubhuti Rana, Garima Kachhawa, Seema Singhal, Rashmi Ramachandran, Neerja Bhatla

 

 

OBJECTIVE:

 

Point of care mobile health (mHealth) tools are emerging as effective strategies for delivering quality training, ensuring rapid clinical decision support (CDS), and monitoring implementation of simple and effective interventions in under-resourced settings. Our main objective was to assess the use of mobile health tool to support online COVID-19 training in our department.

 

DESIGN: Prospective Observational Study

 

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

 

We used an already existing mobile health tool for the online COVID-19 training of residents of Obstetrics & Gynaecology department during the COVID pandemic. This mobile app consisted of three separate sections, Basic & advanced COVID module and Obstetrics & Gynaecology specific module. The basic Module was mainly designed to provide with basic, accurate and up-to-date information about COVID-19 especially on the safety precaution to be used in practice. The advanced module had relevant information on Covid case management. The third module had Obstetrics & Gynaecology specific content.

 

RESULTS:

 

The mobile App based training was completed by all the resident doctors. Satisfaction level after completing the course was 95%. After training, 99% trainees were confident in managing patients. A Focussed group discussion (FGD) was done through an online platform after the course. The meeting is attended by 80% of the residents. Residents found training on this app easier and less time consuming as compared to the other forms of training. Few problems encountered while using the mobile App were the availability of Android based App only and lack of internet access at some places.

 

CONCLUSION:

 

The timely deployment of this mobile App based training obviated the need for conventional didactic training with potential of savings in training costs and time and can be used to target primary health care workers, mostly in hard-to-reach areas.