Over two-thirds of people present to their primary care physicians (General practitioners, or GPs) as a first point of contact for mental health concerns. However, eating disorders are less often identified in a primary care setting compared to other psychiatric conditions. A significant barrier to early detection and intervention is lack of primary care physician training in eating disorders and the time required to gain knowledge and skills to support health care.

To achieve this, a “microlearning” approach was adopted to deliver eating disorder training. Microlearning is a short, spaced, and repeated online learning approach that focuses on flexibility (self-paced and accessible across devices). Fifty-one GPs aged between 25 and 60 years old took part on the pilot program, which consisted of a series of 10 case studies (vignettes) delivered over a 6-10 week period related to various facets of eating disorder care.

Program evaluation indicated improved skill, confidence, willingness-to-treat, and knowledge following the completion of the pilot program. The program was deemed near unanimously effective by most (97.5%) participants. Given the significant time demands on GPs and the resulting challenges in designing appropriate training for this part of the workforce, microlearning shows some promise toward improving the eating disorder workforce through effective, flexible, and scalable learning.

Partners/Organisations:  RiSe; Psyche Foundation  ​

Publications:

Aouad, P., Janssen, A., Corry, S., Spielman, K., Gonzalez-Arce, V., Bryant, E., Simeone, R., Shaw, T., & Maguire, S. Educating primary care physicians about eating disorders: Pilot data from a microlearning program. (2024). European Eating Disorders Review (Epub ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.3074

Presentations:

Aouad, P., Janssen, A., Corry, S., Spielman, K., Gonzalez-Arce, V., Bryant, E., Simeone, R., Shaw, T., & Maguire, S. Developing a Mental Health Training Program for General Practitioners using a Spaced, Microlearning Approach - Educating GPs about Eating Disorders: A Pilot Study. 2022 Australia and New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders Annual Conference, Sydney.