A SURVEY OF UNDERGRADUATE AND CONTINUING MEDICAL-EDUCATION ABOUT ANTIMICROBIAL CHEMOTHERAPY IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM

1 A questionnaire about undergraduate teaching on antimicrobial chemot herapy was sent to academic Departments of Clinical Pharmacology, Phar macology and Medical Microbiology throughout the UK. 2 Questionnaires about postgraduate lectures and information circulated to doctors abou t antimicrobial chemotherapy were sent to Drug Information Centres and Postgraduate Tutors throughout the UK. Review articles and editorials in general medical journals were assessed. 3 The median amount of cor e undergraduate teaching on antimicrobial chemotherapy was 13.5 h but the range was from 9.0 h to 102.0 h. Content was predominantly oriente d towards drugs rather than diseases and towards prescribing in hospit al rather than in the community. Most teaching was by formal lecture a s part of a core programme. On a scale from 0 to 5 the median emphasis given to individual topics ranged from 2.50 to 3.75 but the range of emphasis given by individual medical schools was wide, for example fro m 1.00 to 4.50 for teaching on pharmacokinetics. 4 Postgraduate tutors identified advice from local specialists and requests from local prac titioners as the most important determinants of content of continuing medical education. Material from drug information centres was predomin antly oriented towards discussion of individual drugs rather than mana gement of specific diseases and even this limited survey found evidenc e of duplication. The UK general medical literature contained a total of 112 reviews or editorials on antimicrobial chemotherapy covering a wide range of topics but these were not, and should not be assumed to be comprehensive. 5 Almost all doctors regularly prescribe antimicrobi als and require education about the subject. Wide variations in curren t medical practice should be addressed explicitly through more extensi ve use of problem solving. The literature suggests that knowledge is m ost effectively disseminated through local networks of practitioners. There should be more national co-ordination of the content of informat ion to be disseminated through the existing drug information networks.