The effectiveness of mobile health (mHealth) technologies to train healthcare professionals in developing countries: a review of the literature

Mobile health (mHealth) approaches for medical education in developing countries may be particularly useful given the number of mobile phone subscription rates and the challenges faced by medical educators. The evidence to support its effectiveness has not been critically reviewed. The electronic databases PubMed, Scopus and MEDLINE were searched to retrieve English language articles published in international academic journals between January 2007 and September 2014. Two reviewers independently reviewed citations using predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Only articles addressing the use of mobile or tablet technologies and that met a prespecified keyword strategy were selected for review. The original search returned 583 results, of which only seven pertained to medical education in developing countries and had full text available. There was significant variation between the studies reviewed, in terms of intended audience, intervention design, assessment method and outcome. Three studies assessed the integration of mHealth solutions into the training of allied healthcare professionals, three assessed resident doctors, and another assessed undergraduate medical students. Six of the seven studies used mobile phones as the intervention tool. The majority of studies pointed towards mHealth as a promising tool for education and training of healthcare professionals, yet due to the limited size of the studies definite conclusions were limited. The results of this review suggest that more studies with larger sample sizes and more quantitative methods of evaluation are needed in order to demonstrate that mHealth holds more than mere potential.