BACKGROUND: 

While the prevalence of free, open access medical education resources for health professionals has expanded over the past 10 years, many educational resources for health care professionals are not publicly available or require fees for access. This lack of open access creates global inequities in the availability and sharing of information and may have the most significant impact on health care providers with the greatest need. The extent of open access online educational websites aimed for clinicians and trainees in anesthesiology worldwide is unknown. In this study, we aimed to identify and evaluate the quality of websites designed to provide open access educational resources for anesthesia trainees and clinicians.

METHODS: 

A PubMed search of articles published between 2009 and 2020, and a Startpage search engine web search was conducted in May 2021 to identify websites using the following inclusion criteria: (1) contain educational content relevant for anesthesia providers or trainees, (2) offer content free of charge, and (3) are written in the English language. Websites were each scored by 2 independent reviewers using a website quality evaluation tool with previous validity evidence that was modified for anesthesia (the Anesthesia Medical Education Website Quality Evaluation Tool).

RESULTS: 

Seventy-five articles and 175 websites were identified; 37 websites met inclusion criteria. The most common types of educational content contained in the websites included videos (66%, 25/37), text-based resources (51%, 19/37), podcasts (35%, 13/37), and interactive learning resources (32%, 12/37). Few websites described an editorial review process (24%, 9/37) or included opportunities for active engagement or interaction by learners (30%,11/37). Scores by tertile differed significantly across multiple domains, including disclosure of author/webmaster/website institution; description of an editorial review process; relevancy to residents, fellows, and faculty; comprehensiveness; accuracy; disclosure of content creation or revision; ease of access to information; interactivity; clear and professional presentation of information; and links to external information.

CONCLUSIONS: 

We found 37 open access websites for anesthesia education available on the Internet. Many of these websites may serve as a valuable resource for anesthesia clinicians looking for self-directed learning resources and for educators seeking to curate resources into thoughtfully integrated learning experiences. Ongoing efforts are needed to expand the number and improve the existing open access websites, especially with interactivity, to support the education and training of anesthesia providers in even the most resource-limited areas of the world. Our findings may provide recommendations for those educators and organizations seeking to fill this needed gap to create new high-quality educational websites.

中文翻译：

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麻醉教育开放获取网站的评估

背景： 

虽然在过去 10 年里，针对卫生专业人员的免费、开放获取的医学教育资源越来越普遍，但许多针对卫生保健专业人员的教育资源并不是公开提供的，或者需要付费才能使用。缺乏开放获取造成了全球信息获取和共享方面的不平等，并可能对最需要的医疗保健提供者产生最重大的影响。针对全球麻醉学临床医生和学员的开放访问在线教育网站的范围尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们的目的是确定和评估旨在为麻醉学员和临床医生提供开放获取教育资源的网站的质量。

方法： 

对 2009 年至 2020 年期间发表的文章进行了 PubMed 搜索，并于 2021 年 5 月进行了 Startpage 搜索引擎网络搜索，以使用以下纳入标准来识别网站：(1) 包含与麻醉提供者或学员相关的教育内容，(2) 提供内容免费，并且 (3) 是用英语编写的。每个网站均由 2 名独立审阅者使用网站质量评估工具（麻醉医学教育网站质量评估工具）以及先前针对麻醉进行修改的有效性证据进行评分。

结果： 

确定了 75 篇文章和 175 个网站；37 个网站符合纳入标准。网站中最常见的教育内容类型包括视频（66%，25/37）、基于文本的资源（51%，19/37）、播客（35%，13/37）和互动学习资源（ 32%，12/37）。很少有网站描述了编辑审查过程（24%，9/37）或包含学习者积极参与或互动的机会（30%，11/37）。按三分位数划分的分数在多个领域存在显着差异，包括作者/网站管理员/网站机构的披露；编辑审查流程的描述；与住院医师、研究员和教职人员的相关性；全面性；准确性; 披露内容创建或修改；轻松获取信息；互动性；清晰、专业的信息呈现；以及外部信息的链接。

结论： 

我们在互联网上发现了 37 个用于麻醉教育的开放访问网站。对于寻求自主学习资源的麻醉临床医生和寻求将资源整合到深思熟虑的综合学习体验中的教育工作者来说，其中许多网站可以作为宝贵的资源。需要不断努力扩大现有开放获取网站的数量并改进现有的开放获取网站，特别是在交互性方面，以支持麻醉提供者的教育和培训，即使是在世界上资源最有限的地区。我们的研究结果可以为那些寻求填补这一空白以创建新的高质量教育网站的教育工作者和组织提供建议。