{
  "abstract": "Objectives To assess the comparative effectiveness of educational interventions in neurological disease for healthcare workers and students.Design Systematic review.Data sources Medline, Embase and Cochrane through to 1 June 2025.Eligibility criteria Studies evaluating neurological disease educational interventions with a comparator group (observational cohort/randomised controlled trial (RCT)) were included.Data extraction and synthesis A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-compliant systematic review was conducted (PROSPERO: CRD42023461838). Knowledge acquisition and educational methodologies were collected from each study. Study outcomes were classified using the Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick four-level model (learner reaction, knowledge acquisition, behavioural change, clinical outcome). 1 Risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for non-randomised studies and the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool for RCTs.2 3 Results A total of 67 studies involving 4728 participants were included. Of these, 36 were RCTs, and 31 were observational studies. Virtual interventions were the most common (67.2%, n=45 studies), primarily targeting either medical students (46.3%, n=31 studies) or specialists (40.3%, n=27 studies). Overall, 70.1% (n=47) of studies demonstrated outcomes in favour of the intervention. However, few studies used K&K level 3/4 outcomes, with two studies evaluating behaviour change (level 3) and three assessing clinical outcomes (level 4 combined with other levels). No study exclusively assessed level 4 outcomes. Meta-analysis of 22 RCTs with calculable standardised mean differences (SMDs) (n=1748) showed a significant benefit of interventions (SMD 0.75, 95% CI 0.22 to 1.27, p=0.0056).Conclusions This review highlights a growing body of research particularly focusing on virtual techniques, specialist audiences and treatment-oriented content. Few studies assessed changes in practice or patient care. Non-specialists remain underrepresented. Future studies should prioritise assessing the clinical impact of educational interventions within non-specialist audiences.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Munashe Veremu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Zhilin Jiang"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Conor S Gillespie"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Elena Roman"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "William H Cook"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Active Living and Rehabilitation: Aotearoa New Zealand, Health and Rehabilitation Research Institute, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand"
      ],
      "name": "Rohil V Chauhan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Amir Rafati Fard"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Georgios Toumbas"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "City St George’s University of London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Shehla Baig"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Spinal Cord Injury Center and Department of Neurology and Neurophysiology, Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Carl Zipser"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Neurology Unit, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Sybil Stacpoole"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Lindsay Tetreault"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Naomi Deakin"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Royal Derby Spine Centre, Royal Derby Hospital, Derby, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Antony Bateman"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin M Davies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Comparative effectiveness of educational interventions in neurological disease for healthcare workers and students: a systematic review",
  "uid": "2ea2676f-2cb3-5aa6-907e-8aada10cd68c"
}