Digital Health and Learning in Speech-Language Pathology, Phoniatrics, and Otolaryngology: Survey Study for Designing a Digital Learning Toolbox App
Authors: Lin Yuchen , Lemos Martin , Neuschaefer-Rube Christiane 
Published: April 2022

Background

The digital age has introduced opportunities and challenges for clinical education and practice caused by infinite incoming information and novel technologies for health. In the interdisciplinary field of communication sciences and disorders (CSD), engagement with digital topics has emerged slower than in other health fields, and effective strategies for accessing, managing, and focusing on digital resources are greatly needed.

Objective

We aimed to conceptualize and investigate preferences of stakeholders regarding a digital learning toolbox, an app containing a library of current resources for CSD. This cross-sectional survey study conducted in German-speaking countries investigated professional and student perceptions and preferences regarding such an app’s features, functions, content, and associated concerns.

Methods

An open web-based survey was disseminated to professionals and students in the field of CSD, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs; German: Logopäd*innen), speech-language pathology students, phoniatricians, otolaryngologists, and medical students. Insights into preferences and perceptions across professions, generations, and years of experience regarding a proposed app were investigated.

Results

Of the 164 participants, an overwhelming majority (n=162, 98.8%) indicated readiness to use such an app, and most participants (n=159, 96.9%) perceived the proposed app to be helpful. Participants positively rated app functions that would increase utility (eg, tutorial, quality rating function, filters based on content or topic, and digital format); however, they had varied opinions regarding an app community feature. Regarding app settings, most participants rated the option to share digital resources through social media links (144/164, 87.8%), receive and manage push notifications (130/164, 79.3%), and report technical issues (160/164, 97.6%) positively. However, significant variance was noted across professions (H3=8.006; P=.046) and generations (H3=9.309; P=.03) regarding a username-password function, with SLPs indicating greater perceived usefulness in comparison to speech-language pathology students (P=.045), as was demonstrated by Generation X versus Generation Z (P=.04). Participants perceived a range of clinical topics to be important; however, significant variance was observed across professions, between physicians and SLPs regarding the topic of diagnostics (H3=9.098; P=.03) and therapy (H3=21.236; P<.001). Concerns included technical challenges, data protection, quality of the included resources, and sustainability of the proposed app.

Conclusions

This investigation demonstrated that professionals and students show initial readiness to engage in the co-design and use of an interdisciplinary digital learning toolbox app. Specifically, this app could support effective access, sharing, evaluation, and knowledge management in a digital age of rapid change. Formalized digital skills education in the field of CSD is just a part of the solution. It will be crucial to explore flexible, adaptive strategies collaboratively for managing digital resources and tools to optimize targeted selection and use of relevant, high-quality evidence in a world of bewildering data.