ArticleOnline journal of public health informatics2014
Cost Comparison Model: Blended eLearning versus traditional training of community health workers.
Article in Online journal of public health informatics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 6. Recruitment, training, and continuing education.Health research policy and systems · 2021Pooled it
- Assessing Fidelity to HIV Index Case Testing Protocols in Malawian Clinical Settings: Results From a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2026Trial
- Effect of a digital training package on clinical outcomes in Malawi's index case testing programme: a cluster randomised controlled trial.BMJ global health · 2026Trial
- Training community healthcare workers on the use of information and communication technologies: a randomised controlled trial of traditional versus blended learning in Malawi, Africa.BMC medical education · 2018Trial
- Understanding how digital training enhances healthcare worker perceptions of HIV index case testing: a qualitative explanatory analysis.Research square · 2026Article
- Pathways to Nursing and Midwifery Education in Tanzania with Reflection to the Global Perspectives: A Narrative Review.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Review
- Development of a digital program for training non-specialist providers to deliver a psychosocial intervention for depression: a formative study to support scaling up task-shared depression care in the United States.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Using eLearning to improve and retain the knowledge of community health workers in maternal and neonatal health in Rwanda: A cohort study.Public health challenges · 2024Article
- Barriers and benefits of mHealth for community health workers in integrated community case management of childhood diseases in Banda Parish, Kampala, Uganda: a cross-sectional study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Capacity-building during public health emergencies: perceived usefulness and cost savings of an online training on SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) diagnostics in low- and middle-income settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- A scoping review of the use of e-learning and e-consultation for healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries and their potential complementarity.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2022Article
- What makes community health worker models for tuberculosis active case finding work? A cross-sectional study of TB REACH projects to identify success factors for increasing case notifications.Human resources for health · 2022Article
- Implementing and Sustaining Brief Addiction Medicine Interventions with the Support of a Quality Improvement Blended-eLearning Course: Learner Experiences and Meaningful Outcomes in Kenya.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2022Article
- Blended-eLearning Improves Alcohol Use Care in Kenya: Pragmatic Randomized Control Trial Results and Parallel Qualitative Study Implications.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2022Article
- Community health workers and promotoras' perspectives of a research best practice course: A focus group study.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2022Article
- Design and Development of a Digital Program for Training Non-Specialist Health Workers to Deliver an Evidence-Based Psychological Treatment for Depression in Primary Care in India.Journal of technology in behavioral science · 2020Article
- Development and evaluation of a digital, community-based intervention to reduce noncommunicable disease risk in a low-resource urban setting in Malaysia: a research protocol.Implementation science communications · 2020Article
- Massive open online courses (MOOCs) for continuing medical education - why and how?Advances in medical education and practice · 2019Article
- Effectiveness of the Malnutrition eLearning Course for Global Capacity Building in the Management of Malnutrition: Cross-Country Interrupted Time-Series Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAnother one million community healthcare workers are needed to address the growing global population and increasing demand of health care services. This paper describes a cost comparison between two training approaches to better understand costs implications of training community health workers (CHWs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
methodsOur team created a prospective model to forecast and compare the costs of two training methods as described in the Dalburge Report - (1) a traditional didactic training approach ("baseline") and (2) a blended eLearning training approach ("blended"). After running the model for training 100,000 CHWs, we compared the results and scaled up those results to one million CHWs.
resultsA substantial difference exists in total costs between the baseline and blended training programs. RESULTS indicate that using a blended eLearning approach for training community health care workers could provide a total cost savings of 42%. Scaling the model to one million CHWs, the blended eLearning training approach reduces total costs by 25%. DISCUSSION: The blended eLearning savings are a result of decreased classroom time, thereby reducing the costs associated with travel, trainers and classroom costs; and using a tablet with WiFi plus a feature phone rather than a smartphone with data plan.
conclusionThe results of this cost analysis indicate significant savings through using a blended eLearning approach in comparison to a traditional didactic method for CHW training by as much as 67%. These results correspond to the Dalberg publication which indicates that using a blended eLearning approach is an opportunity for closing the gap in training community health care workers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.