Realizing the promise - Delivering pulmonary continuing medical education over the Internet

Study objectives: Continuing medical education (CME) is meant to bridge the gap between new scientific observations and clinical practice. However, tr aditional CR IE has not been effective at altering the behaviors of physici ans. One reason for this failure of traditional CME programs may; be their inflexibility, In traditional CME, the clinician does not choose the topic, the pace of the program, or the place of learning, and the CME material ca nnot be easily delivered to the point of care where the clinician needs the information. Computers and computer networks have the potential to accompl ish these goals. CME has begun to appear on the Inter-net; however, there h ave been few evaluations of its usefulness, acceptance, and effectiveness. Over the last 18 months, we have developed three on-line pulmonary CME prog rams, and we have delivered them on the Virtual Hospital, the University of Iowa's digital health sciences library on the Internet, We report our init ial experience with this CME material. Design: We measured the frequency with which the Internet-delivered CME is accessed by monitoring page accessions and by using a log file analysis pro gram (Analog 1.2.3; University of Cambridge Statistical Laboratory; Cambrid ge, UK), In addition, we collected all completed CME examinations and evalu ation forms submitted by registered users. Measurements and results: We have found that the frequency with which the I nternet-delivered CME is accessed has continued to increase with time (2.3- fold increase over 18 months), that evaluations of technical and content is sues are strongly favorable, and that some clinicians have been willing to pay to receive CME through the medium of the Internet, Conclusions: We feel that with adequate peer review and quality control, ph ysicians will use the Internet-delivered CME. However, several obstacles to nide use remain. These obstacles include issues regarding training in usin g the Internet for physicians, reluctance of physicians to participate in o n-line commerce, and the current unavailability of CME to be delivered in s mall-grained quantities to the point of care, As these issues are addressed , we feel that on-line CME will represent an increasingly important CME med ium for clinicians.