Saudi Journal of Oral and Dental Research (SJODR)
Volume-6 | Issue-11 | 481-497
Original Research Article
Impact of Videoconferencing Technology as an Educational Tool for Saudi Dental Healthcare Personnel
Ahmad Al Zahrani, Md Nazmul Haq Sikder
Published : Nov. 4, 2021
Abstract
The healthcare literature contains several examples and uses of interactive videoconferencing as a consultation tool for remote clinics, or for the education of students in distant locations. However, no systematic review was conducted to evaluate the influence of videoconferencing technology as an educational tool for Dental Healthcare Personnel (DHCP). Thus, this systematic review was conducted to investigate the impact of employing videoconferencing on the learning outcomes of DHCP or dental students, as well as to explore the future prospect of implementing this tool in Saudi Arabian context. The search strategy included 11 electronic databases including MEDLINE, CINAHL full text, ScienceDirect and PubMed plus manual and grey literature searches of any relevant study in English language up to January 2018 after assessing the eligibility of the full-text article based on certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. Out of 671 studies, 17 were eligible to be included in the review. The majority of the selected literature (11 studies) was of moderate quality, while four studies were considered as being high quality and the last two were located in the poor quality category. Most of the included studies were mixed qualitative studies (12 studies) and the remaining were quantitative studies (5 studies). This review shows a positive learning impact of videoconferencing on DHCP. As, no financial or infrastructure issues are encountered, this technology seems promising with the potential in Saudi Arabian dental education, providing that leaders of Ministry of Health (MOH) and Dental Schools of Saudi Arabia can be convinced to use it.