How is technology used to support patient and public involvement in undergraduate medical education? A rapid systematic review

Conference:

SAPC ASM 2021 - virtual

Talk Code:

1A.6

Presenter:

Eitan Lovat

Co-authors:

Sadie Lawes-Wickwar, Adedoyin Alao, Julia Hamer-Hunt, Nesrin Yurtoglu, Cherise Jensen, Nicola Clarke, Eitan Lovat, Nia Roberts, Sophie Park

Author institutions:

University College London, Newcastle University, Oxford University

Problem

Patient and public involvement (PPI) in medical education centralises the patient’s voice and enables students to develop their professional and person centred skills. Levels of involvement in healthcare education has varied widely. In the past, patients have had relatively passive roles in medical education, but examples of good practice have increased over recent years. Barriers to involvement have arisen from the Covid-19 pandemic. Remote involvement offers a solution and mirrors an increasing shift towards remote clinical practice. As far as we are aware, there is no published systematic review of technology-supported PPI in undergraduate medical education that describes the variety of technology used to support PPI activities, or that has identified or addressed specific barriers to technology-enhanced involvement among public contributors.

Approach

A rapid systematic review was conducted review to identify evidence for the use of technology to support PPI in undergraduate medical teaching. Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, and medRxiv were searched in October 2020 and reference lists of key articles hand searched. Eligible studies reported any type or level of involvement in undergraduate medical education from patients, carers or the public. Any study design, type of remote technology, and educational setting were eligible. Double screening will be performed for 10% of articles. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) will be used to assess the quality of included studies.

Findings

Searches identified 676 articles. After screening titles and abstracts, 214 articles were moved to full text screening. Screening and data extraction is currently underway.

Consequences

Identifying and reviewing the current evidence will enable us to begin to understand the uses of technology in the contexts of medical training and healthcare practice more broadly. This review will also support medical educators and researchers to understand the potential barriers for PPI representatives in contributing to medical education during this time and as the NHS increases the use of remote healthcare delivery.

Submitted by:

Sadie Lawes-Wickwar

Funding acknowledgement:

This project was funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) Seedcorn Grant.