Impact of a multifaceted educational intervention including serious games to improve the management of invasive candidiasis in critically ill patients.

Objectives: Infections caused by Candida species are common in critically ill patients and contribute to significant morbidity and mortality. The EPICO Project (Epico 1 and Epico 2.0 studies) recently used a Delphi approach to elaborate guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of this condition in critically ill adult patients. We aimed to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted educational intervention based on the Epico 1 and Epico 2.0 recommendations.

Design: Specialists anonymously responded to two online surveys before and after a multifaceted educational intervention consisting of 60-min educational sessions, the distribution of slide kits and pocket guides with the recommendations, and an interactive virtual case presented at a teleconference and available for online consultation.

Setting: A total of 74 Spanish hospitals.

Participants: Specialists of the Intensive Care Units in the participating hospitals.

Variables Of Interest: Specialist knowledge and reported practices evaluated using a survey. The McNemar test was used to compare the responses in the pre- and post-intervention surveys.

Results: A total of 255 and 248 specialists completed both surveys, in both periods, respectively. The pre-intervention surveys showed many specialists to be unaware of the best approach for managing invasive candidiasis. After both educational interventions, specialist knowledge and reported practices were found to be more in line with nearly all the recommendations of the Epico 1 and Epico 2.0 guidelines, except as regards de-escalation from echinocandins to fluconazole in Candida glabrata infections (p=0.055), and the duration of antifungal treatment in both candidemia and peritoneal candidiasis.

Conclusions: This multifaceted educational intervention based on the Epico Project recommendations improved specialist knowledge of the management of invasive candidiasis in critically ill patients.