title: Telehealth distance education course in Latin America: analysis of an experience involving 15 countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telehealth activities are already going on in many Latin American countries. This article aims to present and evaluate a distance learning telehealth training course in the region.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. A coordinating committee was formed, composed of medical school faculty from 15 countries, which defined the course's syllabus, teaching model, and mentoring structure. A questionnaire was prepared, using a Likert scale, in order to verify if the parameters of gender, age, professional category, postgraduate degree, and experience in distance education indicated any difference in relation to the course evaluation. The responses were analyzed by chi-squared test, considering as significant a value of p<0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 353 enrolled participants, 251 (71.10%) did the basic modules, and 96 (43.91%) completed the full training. In relation to the overall course assessment, it was considered excellent or good by 80.92% of participants, the mentors received positive evaluations by 72.83% of students, the course content was evaluated as excellent or good by 87.4% of students, and 94.40% of participants would recommend it. As for the parameters assessed, only experience in distance education was statistically significant for the evaluation of the tutors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results presented indicate an important concern on the part of the Latin American countries participating on the course in relation to telehealth training activities. Regarding course assessment, high approval rates in relation to tutoring, educational model, course content, and goals were noted, corroborating literature data. The experience of conducting a Latin American shared telehealth training course was indeed positive, contributing to the development of telehealth actions.
authors.affiliation: Telehealth Nucleus, Medical School at Federal University of Minas Gerais , Belo Horizonte, Brazil .
authors.forename: Alaneir de Fátima
authors.initials: Ade F
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: Humberto José
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.forename: Janaina Teixeira
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Nogueira
authors.forename: Rosoália Mpraes
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Maria do Carmo Barros
authors.initials: Mdo C
authors.lastname: Melo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D020375:Education, Distance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000193:education*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017145:Models, Educational; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017216:Telemedicine
keywords: distance learning; e-health; education; policy; telehealth