Online Continuing Medical Education | |
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The Office of Professional Development Team
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Online Continuing Medical EducationMemorial University is making being a Canadian Rural Physician a lot easier.
MDcme.ca, a product of The Electronic Rural Medicine Strategy (TERMS), an innovative concept to provide online continuing medical education (CME) to physicians across Canada. By supporting physicians’ professional development needs, increasing access to specialists and other colleagues, reducing physicians’ travel time, costs, and the need for locum coverage, we can ultimately retain physicians and health professionals in rural communities. Since Jan 2002, 28 accredited courses have been developed and delivered. A highly effective approach blending instructional design, research, multimedia, and gap analysis ensures MDcme.ca is adopted by the user community.
This not-for-profit bilingual portal is led by Memorial University of Newfoundland, Faculty of Medicine, Office of Professional Development in conjunction with a Pan-Canadian consortium of 10 medical schools. The consortium is the key to success of the portal as it creates a powerful credibility among physicians. Other partners include federal/provincial governments, medical associations, private industry companies, and physicians. There have been significant contributions close to $2 million from Health Canada, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Pfizer Canada. Most recently MDcme.ca courses are distributed through the www.CFPC.ca web portal.
Since the inception of MDcme.ca, the Office of Professional Development has consistently collected statistical and research evaluation data to ensure that the web portal is meeting the needs of the medical community. Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dalhousie University and the University of Calgary, are collaborating on an evaluation research study to examine the effectiveness of MDcme.ca’s CME courses and to identify means for enhancing the quality of learning in online CME learning environments.
Preliminary research findings indicate that MDcme.ca is helping both rural and urban physicians to meet their continuing education needs. More than 90 percent (92.7%) of research participants stated that the course content addressed their learning needs. Sample physician comments indicate that MDcme.ca has “well-designed content geared to general practice issues.” Physicians have also stated that the web portal is “easy and very informative, and it’s a good way of interacting with other peers and other specialists who are in the field.” Many respondents report being able to learn at their own pace and better juggle learning time with work and home responsibilities. In fact, 91.2% indicated that they would participate in another CME course offering of this type; 88% stated that they would recommend MDcme.ca’s course offerings to their colleagues.
One of the objectives of this research study is to ‘identify participants’ self-reported changes to clinical practices as a result of participation in online CME’. At six to eight weeks post-course completion, participants are forwarded a self-reporting Practice Change Survey. This survey is reflective of each course’s objectives and is designed so that course participants can self-identify their knowledge, skills and/or ability ‘Before Participating in CME’ and ‘After Participating in CME’. Preliminary analysis of the surveys received to date for ‘Management of Parkinson’s Disease’, for example, shows that participants indicated improved knowledge and ability as a result of their participation in the course. While further research and analysis will continue throughout 2004-2005, preliminary research findings support their importance to health professionals practicing in rural and remote communities across Canada.
Some of the challenges faced during development and delivery of the web portal is the ability to create a pan-Canadian awareness about MDcme.ca, adoption by physicians to use the internet and avail of online learning, internet connectivity and infrastructure in rural areas. The infrastructure is continuously improving and with advances in high speed internet services, the potential for growth is high.
MDcme.ca strives for self-sustainability and will be recognized as a national leader providing quality, accredited online CME for physicians and other healthcare professionals throughout Canada. The increasing number of registrants and visitors to the web portal, along with the growing interest from organizations and industries Canada-wide and internationally, testify to the growing e-learning CME market and the reputations of the project partners as leaders in the e-learning field.
Fran Kirby, MEd
Manager Professional Development
Faculty of Medicine
Memorial University of Newfoundland
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