Health Informatics Education Effectiveness in Nepal (HI-EDU)
7. juli 2026 oppdatert av: Dip Bahadur Singh, Axon Infotech Research Academy Pvt. Ltd.
Assessing the Comparative Effectiveness of Health Informatics Education: Knowledge Retention and Technological Awareness in Health Science Students
This study evaluates the effectiveness of a blended Health Informatics (HI) course (HI471) on knowledge retention and technology awareness among health science students in Nepal.
Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) students (intervention group, n=17) received a 14-week HI471 course combining online, virtual, and in-person practical sessions.
A control group of Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) students (n=17) continued their standard curriculum without dedicated HI instruction.
Both groups completed a validated 44-item knowledge assessment and an 11-item technology awareness survey at baseline (Week 1) and post-intervention (Week 15).
The primary outcome was the between-group difference in knowledge gain scores.
Results showed that BPH students significantly improved their total knowledge scores (median +31.5 points, r=0.879), while the B.Pharm control group showed no significant change.
BPH students achieved 100% awareness of 9 out of 11 digital health tools at post-test.
This study provides strong evidence that the HI471 blended course is highly effective in building informatics competencies in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) academic setting.
The study was retrospectively registered.
Studieoversikt
Status
Fullført
Forhold
Intervensjon / Behandling
Detaljert beskrivelse
This controlled pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group evaluated the effectiveness of the Health Informatics-471 (HI471) blended course at Madan Bhandari Academy of Health Sciences (MBAHS) in Nepal.
The intervention group (G1) consisted of all 17 Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) students enrolled in the 7th semester, who received the HI471 course.
The control group (G2) consisted of 17 Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) 7th-semester students, randomly sampled from 29 eligible students, who received no dedicated HI instruction.
The HI471 course integrated three blended modalities over 14 weeks: (i) online asynchronous LMS instruction (pre-recorded lectures, readings, quizzes), (ii) live synchronous Google Meet sessions, and (iii) in-person practical laboratory sessions covering EHR platforms, DHIS2, SPSS/R, and telemedicine interfaces.
A validated 44-item Health Informatics Knowledge Assessment Tool (with weighted partial-credit scoring, maximum 100 points) and an 11-item binary technology awareness instrument were administered at T1 (Week 1, baseline) and T2 (Week 15, post-intervention).
The primary outcome was the between-group difference in total knowledge gain scores (Δ = T2 - T1), analyzed using non-parametric statistics (Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon signed-rank, Friedman, McNemar) with bootstrap effect sizes.
The study demonstrated large, significant knowledge gains in the intervention group (median +31.5 points, r=0.824, p<0.001) compared to the control group, with robust findings across three pre-specified sensitivity analyses.
The intervention group achieved near-complete technology awareness (100% on 9 out of 11 tools).
This research addresses the evidence gap for controlled educational evaluations in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) academic settings.
The study protocol was approved by the MBAHS Institutional Review Committee (IRC-134-082-083), and all participants provided written informed consent.
The study was conducted in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki (revised 2013).
The study was registered retrospectively.
Studietype
Intervensjonell
Registrering (Faktiske)
34
Fase
- Ikke aktuelt
Kontakter og plasseringer
Denne delen inneholder kontaktinformasjon for de som utfører studien, og informasjon om hvor denne studien blir utført.
Studiesteder
-
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Bagmati
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Hetauda, Bagmati, Nepal, 31206
- Madan Bhandari Academy of Health Sciences
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Deltakelseskriterier
Forskere ser etter personer som passer til en bestemt beskrivelse, kalt kvalifikasjonskriterier. Noen eksempler på disse kriteriene er en persons generelle helsetilstand eller tidligere behandlinger.
Kvalifikasjonskriterier
Alder som er kvalifisert for studier
- Voksen
- Eldre voksen
Tar imot friske frivillige
Ja
Beskrivelse
Inclusion Criteria:
- Active enrollment in the 7th semester of the Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) program (intervention group) or the Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) program (control group) at Madan Bhandari Academy of Health Sciences (MBAHS).
- Voluntary written informed consent obtained prior to any study procedure.
- Completion of both T1 (Week 1, baseline) and T2 (Week 15, post-intervention) assessments.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Withdrawal from the study before completion of all study procedures.
- Incomplete paired data (missing T1 or T2 assessment).
Studieplan
Denne delen gir detaljer om studieplanen, inkludert hvordan studien er utformet og hva studien måler.
Hvordan er studiet utformet?
Designdetaljer
- Primært formål: Annen
- Tildeling: Ikke-randomisert
- Intervensjonsmodell: Parallell tildeling
- Masking: Ingen (Open Label)
Våpen og intervensjoner
Deltakergruppe / Arm |
Intervensjon / Behandling |
|---|---|
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Eksperimentell: BPH Intervention Group
Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) 7th-semester students (n=17) who received the 14-week Health Informatics-471 (HI471) blended course, consisting of online asynchronous LMS instruction, live synchronous Google Meet sessions, and in-person practical laboratory work covering seven HI content domains.
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A 14-week blended educational course combining: (i) online asynchronous LMS instruction (pre-recorded lectures, readings, quizzes); (ii) live synchronous Google Meet sessions (2 hours, 3 days per week); and (iii) in-person practical laboratory sessions (4 hours per week) covering Electronic Health Records (EHR), DHIS2, SPSS/R, and telemedicine interfaces.
No drug, device, biological product, or surgical procedure was involved.
This is a purely educational/behavioral intervention delivered in an academic setting.
|
|
Ingen inngripen: B.Pharm Control Group
Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) 7th-semester students (n=17) who continued their standard curriculum without any dedicated Health Informatics instruction.
This group served as the non-equivalent control group.
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Hva måler studien?
Primære resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
|---|---|---|
|
Change in Total Health Informatics Knowledge Score
Tidsramme: Baseline (Week 1) to post-intervention (Week 15)
|
Measured using the Health Informatics Knowledge Assessment Tool (HIKAT) - a validated 44-item multiple-select instrument with weighted partial-credit scoring.
Scores range from 0 to 100 points, where higher scores indicate better health informatics knowledge.
Administered to both groups at T1 (Week 1, pre-test) and T2 (Week 15, post-test).
The primary causal contrast is the between-group difference in gain scores (Δ = T2 - T1), analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test with bootstrapped effect sizes.
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Baseline (Week 1) to post-intervention (Week 15)
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Sekundære resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
|---|---|---|
|
Domain-Specific Knowledge Gains Across Six HI Content Areas
Tidsramme: Baseline (Week 1) to post-intervention (Week 15)
|
Change in knowledge scores across six domain areas assessed using the Health Informatics Knowledge Assessment Tool (HIKAT): D1 General HI/Introduction to IT, D2 Operating Systems & Software, D3 Public Health & IT, D4 Database Management, D5+6 Data Analysis & Coding, and D7 Telemedicine.
Each domain score is expressed as a percentage of the domain maximum (minimum: 0%, maximum: 100%), where higher scores indicate greater domain-specific health informatics knowledge.
Domain gains are analyzed using Friedman test with Kendall W and Holm-corrected post-hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank tests within the intervention group.
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Baseline (Week 1) to post-intervention (Week 15)
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Andre resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
|---|---|---|
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Change in Technological Awareness Across Digital Health Tools
Tidsramme: Baseline (Week 1) to post-intervention (Week 15)
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Change in binary (Yes/No) awareness of 11 digital health tools: EHR, Telemedicine, HMIS, Public Health Informatics, GIS, HIMS, DBMS, Python, Programming Language, Telehealth Platforms, and Remote Patient Monitoring.
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Baseline (Week 1) to post-intervention (Week 15)
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Samarbeidspartnere og etterforskere
Det er her du vil finne personer og organisasjoner som er involvert i denne studien.
Etterforskere
- Hovedetterforsker: Dip Bahadur Singh, Axon Infotech Research Academy
Studierekorddatoer
Disse datoene sporer fremdriften for innsending av studieposter og sammendragsresultater til ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieposter og rapporterte resultater gjennomgås av National Library of Medicine (NLM) for å sikre at de oppfyller spesifikke kvalitetskontrollstandarder før de legges ut på det offentlige nettstedet.
Studer hoveddatoer
Studiestart (Faktiske)
15. april 2026
Primær fullføring (Faktiske)
20. juni 2026
Studiet fullført (Faktiske)
30. juni 2026
Datoer for studieregistrering
Først innsendt
2. juli 2026
Først innsendt som oppfylte QC-kriteriene
7. juli 2026
Først lagt ut (Faktiske)
8. juli 2026
Oppdateringer av studieposter
Sist oppdatering lagt ut (Faktiske)
8. juli 2026
Siste oppdatering sendt inn som oppfylte QC-kriteriene
7. juli 2026
Sist bekreftet
1. juli 2026
Mer informasjon
Begreper knyttet til denne studien
Andre studie-ID-numre
- HI471-MBAHS-2026
- IRC-134-082-083 (Registeridentifikator: Madan Bhandari Academy of Health Sciences IRC)
Plan for individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)
Planlegger du å dele individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)?
NEI
IPD-planbeskrivelse
Individual participant data (IPD) will not be shared because participants did not provide consent for their individual-level data to be shared with external researchers.
Additionally, the small sample size (n=34) increases the risk of participant re-identification, even with de-identification.
All aggregated, anonymized summary data are presented in the published manuscript and supplementary materials
Legemiddel- og utstyrsinformasjon, studiedokumenter
Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert medikamentprodukt
Nei
Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert enhetsprodukt
Nei
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