Continuing Medical Education: an international reality

From the journal Allergy:

Braido F, Popov T, Ansotegui IJ, Gayraud J, Nekam KL, Delgado JL et al. Continuing Medical Education: an international reality. Allergy 2005; 60(6):739-742.

Abstract: We are all aware today of the growing interest in continuing medical education (CME) programmes in many European Countries and it is important to understand why and how CME could become an international reality. It is obvious that patients need a good doctor–the best possible–as far as medical knowledge, attention to the patient's quality of life and cost-control is concerned. All European health care systems have to take into consideration everything that causes patient dissatisfaction, risk management and unjustified expenses. An example is the increase of claims and complaints against doctors and the strong attention of patients to medical procedures. In other words, medicine worldwide is becoming a service industry and has to consider quality and quantity of performances as well as to pay attention to personal responsibility. The object of our work is to evaluate the CME systems present in Europe, to show the work done on CME by the CME Committee of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology and to highlight the Consensus Report on CME approved by an international panel of CME experts.
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Changing physician prescribing behaviour

This lecture by Dr. Jean Gray was presented at the 2005 Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology Canadian Therapeutics Conference:

Gray J. Changing physician prescribing behaviour [lecture]. Can J Clin Pharmacol 2006; 13(1):e81-e84. Abstract: Didactic approaches to educating physicians and/or other health professionals do not produce changes in learner behaviour. Similarly, printed materials and practice guidelines have not been shown to change prescribing behaviour. Evidence-based educational approaches that do have an impact on provider behaviour include: teaching aimed at identified learning needs; interactive educational activities; sequenced and multifaceted interventions; enabling tools such as patient education programs, flow charts, and reminders; educational outreach or academic detailing; and audit and feedback to prescribers. Dr. Jean Gray reflects over the past 25 years on how there has been a transformation in the types of activities employed to improve prescribing practices in Nova Scotia. The evolution of Continuing Medical Education (CME) has resulted in the creation of the Drug Evaluation Alliance of Nova Scotia (DEANS) program, which is one exemplar of an evidence-based educational approach to improving physician prescribing in that province. Key words: Evidence-based, education, prescribing.
PubMed Record       Journal Record       Full Text      DEANS