Retention of Knowledge Levels of Health Care Providers in Cancer Screening Through Telementoring

Abstract

PurposeEvery year > 450,000 individuals are diagnosed with cancer and approximately 350,000 die of it in India. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released an Operational Framework for the Management of Common Cancers that highlights population-based cancer screening programs in primary health care facilities by health care providers (HCPs) and capacity building of HCPs. The purpose of this study is to present a low-cost training model that is highly suitable for resource-deficient settings, such as those found in India, through Extension for Community Health Outcome (ECHO), a knowledge-sharing tool, to enable high-quality training of HCPs.Materials and MethodsAn in-person, 3-day training program was conducted for 27 HCPs in the tribal primary health care center of Gumballi in Karnataka, India, to teach the basics of cancer screening in oral, breast, and cervical cancer. The training of HCPs was done using the ECHO platform while they implemented the cancer screening, thus enabling them to build the much needed knowledge and skill set to conduct cancer screening in their respective communities.ResultsThe knowledge level of the HCPs was tracked before the intervention, immediately after the 3-day training program, and 6 months after the ECHO intervention, which clearly showed progressive acquisition and retention of knowledge. A marked improvement in knowledge level score from an average of 6.3 to 13.7 on a 15-point scale was noticed after the initial in-person training. The average knowledge further increased to a score of 14.4 after 6 months as a result of training using the ECHO platform.ConclusionECHO is an affordable and effective model to train HCPs in cancer screening in a resource-constrained setting.

Factors influencing the retention of participants in online cancer screening training programs in India

“…This particular technique is a privilege for part-time learners as it enables self-paced learning. On the contrary, online courses conducted using the telementoring platform like Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) run live sessions using the online space [ 6 – 8 ]. This non-conventional approach which provides the luxury of a classroom learning experience in online courses is a boon to the learner community.…”

Project ECHO: a Potential Best-Practice Tool for Training Healthcare Providers in Oral Cancer Screening and Tobacco Cessation

“…The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, launched the operational guidelines for the prevention, screening, and control of the common cancers in India (oral, breast, and cervical cancer) in August 2016, intended to be rolled out among the existing healthcare providers (HCPs) at the various healthcare facility levels [6]. However, the HCPs are not actively involved in the same, in spite of emphasizing the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, possibly due to the lack of sensitization/essential training among the majority [7].…”

“…The Project Extension for Community Health Outcome (ECHO) is an online knowledge-sharing portal, developed in 2003 by Dr. Sanjeev Arora at the Health Sciences Center, University of New Mexico, with the objective of Bmoving knowledge^rather than the patients or doctors [7][8][9]. It was mainly developed to assist primary care providers (PCPs) in rural New Mexico in managing hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients [8,9].…”

Capacity building of primary care physicians of the tea garden hospitals in Dibrugarh, Assam: A demonstration project

“…In-person training is essential before the HCPs implement a population-based cancer screening programme because their knowledge about cancer and screening tests is minimal. [ 9 10 ] This is reflected by the participants’ low pretest scores in this study. The present study reiterates that the systematic training sessions which include theory and hands-on training are useful in increasing the knowledge and skill component of HCPs.…”