Effectiveness of a digital platform for sharing knowledge on headache management: a two-year experience

It is crucial that all headache specialists receive adequate training. Considering the unsatisfactory results obtained with standard updating courses and the growing need for continuing professional education, a digital platform was developed as a training tool. The platform has been active since 1 October 2014. It is readily accessible to doctors by free registration. Users have access to all the material available on the platform, which includes scientific articles, e-books, presentations and images. Users can share their own material and clinical cases directly. At the time of this study, the platform had 37 users. In the second year following its launch 316 files were downloaded and five discussions were started. These saw 22 contributions. Fifteen of the 37 members did not perform any action on the platform. In total, 74 files were uploaded in the second year of activity, but 90% of the contributions came from a very small group of users. There were no significant differences in use of the platform between members of the Italian Society for the Study of Headache and other specialists. Even though the platform appears to be an easily accessible, interactive and inexpensive instrument, the higher number of downloads than uploads suggests that it is used passively.