ONLINE DELIVERY OF CONTINUING MEDICAL-EDUCATION OVER THE WORLD-WIDE-WEB - AN ONLINE NEEDS ASSESSMENT

OBJECTIVE. On-line continuing medical education (CME) courses offer at least two potential advantages: They are extremely convenient and rel atively inexpensive. Before expanding our department's 2-year-old on-l ine category I accredited CME program, we conducted a survey to assess the need for more courses of this type and to document those topics o f most interest to our responders. MATERIALS AND METHODS. An on-line s urvey form was designed and linked to the home page of our departmenta l Web server. The 8-month survey asked whether responders were interes ted in earning category I CME hours, how many hours they desired, how much they were willing to pay for each hour, and which topics would in terest them most. Responders were also asked to specify their medical practice and medical specialty. All responses were tabulated, and simp le descriptive statistics were calculated. RESULTS, Our survey receive d 317 responses: 188 from physicians, 42 from radiology technologists, 11 from physician assistants and nurse practitioners, and the remaind er from 26 other categories of practice. Physician specialties identif ied included 86 diagnostic radiologists, 24 internists, 18 emergency m edicine specialists, 15 family practitioners, and 45 from 14 other spe cialties. Responses came mainly from the United States; however, 32 re sponses were received from 15 other countries. The median number of on -line CME hours desired was 15 (range, 1-1324). Physician responders w ere willing to pay a median amount of $10 per credit hour (range, $0-4 00). The most commonly suggested topic was general radiology, followed by general reviews of MR imaging, CT, sonography, and various organ-b ased specialties in radiology such as mammography, neuroradiology, and musculoskeletal radiology. CONCLUSION. Physicians and many other heal th care workers are interested in on-line CME and are willing to pay f or such a service. This information, as well as the suggested topics c ollected in this survey, may prove helpful in planning future offering s of on-line CME.