Clinical effectiveness of online training in palliative care of primary care physicians.

Background: Primary care physicians (PCPs) have a major responsibility in the management of palliative patients. Online palliative care (PC) education has not been shown to have a clinical impact on patients that is equal or different to traditional training.

Objective: This study tested the clinical effectiveness of online PC education of physicians through impact on symptom control, quality of life (QOL), caregiver satisfaction, and knowledge-attitude of physicians at 18 months of the intervention.

Methods: We conducted a randomized clinical trial. Subjects were 169 physicians randomly assigned to receive the online model or traditional training. Consecutive patients with advanced cancer requiring PC were included. Physicians and patients completed the Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS), and patients the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL) twice, 7 to 10 days apart. Caregivers completed the SERVQUAL. Physicians' level of knowledge-attitude was measured at 18 months.

Results: Sixty-seven physicians enrolled 117 patients. The intervention group had reduced scores for pain, symptoms, and family anxiety. The global RSCL scale showed a difference between groups. There was no significant difference in the questionnaires used. Caregiver satisfaction was comparable between groups. Physicians in the intervention group significantly increased their knowledge without any differences in attitude. Online training was completed by 86.6% in the intervention group, whereas 13.4% in the control group accessed traditional training.

Conclusions: Participation in an online PC education program by PCPs improved patient scores for some symptoms and family anxiety on the POS and also showed improved global QOL. Significant differences were found in physicians' knowledge at short and long term.