[Manejo de la cesación tabáquica entre residentes de cardiología de Iberoamérica]

Impact of an online course on enhancing the diagnosis of Chagas disease in Latin America

Objective

Chagas disease poses a public health problem in Latin America, and the electrocardiogram is a crucial tool in the diagnosis and monitoring of this pathology. In this context, the aim of this study was to quantify the change in the ability to detect electrocardiographic patterns among healthcare professionals after completing a virtual course.

Materials and Methods

An asynchronous virtual course with seven pre-recorded classes was conducted. Participants answered the same questionnaire at the beginning and end of the training. Based on these responses, pre and post-test results for each participant were compared.

Results

The study included 1656 participants from 21 countries; 87.9% were physicians, 5.2% nurses, 4.1% technicians, and 2.8% medical students. Initially, 3.1% answered at least 50% of the pre-test questions correctly, a proportion that increased to 50.4% after the course (p=0.001). Regardless of their baseline characteristics, 82.1% of course attendees improved their answers after completing the course.

Conclusions

The implementation of an asynchronous online course on electrocardiography in Chagas disease enhanced the skills of both medical and non-medical personnel to recognize this condition.

[Self-perception of smoking cessation skills among Cardiology residents in Argentina]

Objective

To evaluate the self-perception of cardiology residents in Argentina regarding their abilities to help their patients stop smoking, as well as their opinions about their knowledge and skills in this area.

Materials and methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out using secondary data from a study carried out in five Latin American countries and Spain, focusing on the information provided by cardiology residents in Argentina. Discrete variables were expressed as median and interquartile range, and categorical variables were expressed as percentages, and were analyzed using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, depending on the relative frequency of the expected values.

Results

447 residents participated; 87.5% routinely provided brief advice to quit smoking, and 11.6% used validated questionnaires to assess the degree of addiction. Furthermore, 32.1% stated that they prescribed pharmacological treatment, but 53.1% were only familiar with a single drug. When asked about their self-perception of getting their patients to stop smoking, the median response was 5 (scale from 1 to 10); only 13.7% responded with a score of 8 or more.

Conclusions

The present study suggests that cardiology residents in Argentina recognize the importance of carrying out smoking cessation interventions, but a high proportion of them do not feel qualified to do so.