No Crystal Ball Required: The Future of CME Is Already Here August 2007 VIEW on Medical Education E-CME Niki Oquist, M.D., FAAP, Senior VP, Medical Affairs Advances in technology are changing the way groups and individuals communicate with and amongst one another, and CME providers must embrace these advances or risk becoming irrelevant to physicians. The new age of the Internet, Web 2.0, has arrived, and physicians as a whole have already begun to embrace these technological advances. Consider findings outlined in a recent Manhattan Research white paper, Physicians and Web 2.0 (2007). A groundswell of U.S. physicians already report using online video (508,000 physicians), blogs (almost 300,000), and Podcasts (an estimated 100,000 loyal users), and it’s not just young physicians. The white paper states, “those with a voice online tend to be older with more professional experience — essentially representing the true ‘physician blogger’ with something to say — while the younger audience may be more likely to listen and then perhaps join in the resulting conversation later.” Will Web 2.0 change the way physicians feel about live meetings next? Has it already? Clinicians no longer need to be in the same physical location to network and interact, two of the major reasons traditionally cited by physicians when explaining why they prefer live, in-person meetings to less personal alternatives. This is just one example. Delivering education on demand at the point of care, increasing use of physician-to-consumer (PTC) education, embracing adult learning principles, increased interactivity and retention tools are all influencing CME and will continue to impact how providers communicate with and educate clinicians moving forward. Educating at the Point of Care PDAs and other handheld devices make it easier than ever for medical professionals to access, on demand, important and immediately applicable clinical information. Whether referencing critical drug interactions or accessing refreshers to previously consumed education, physicians can literally find the information they need in seconds, right at the patient’s point of care. Helping Physicians Educate Consumers For patients with PDAs, physicians can access information and simply beam it to those patients to review at a later, more appropriate time. PTC materials are another valuable CME-related tool for physicians. They meet the needs of patients seeking trustworthy information, improve patient understanding, and help increase compliance. When physicians restate the content received during CME sessions in laypersons’ terms this can address the educational need spurred by DTC advertising with clear information about complex disease states and treatment options. The use of PTC materials helps physicians help patients and this should be integrated into continuing medical education programs. And who better to develop PTC information than an accredited CME provider? Adult Learning Principles and Increasingly Interactive Learning These two trends have been at work for quite some time now. Expect a continued prevalence of case-based learning that focuses on actual patient cases, inclusion of Q&A sessions, and an ongoing desire to deliver education that is engaging and relevant to the daily practice of medical professionals. Self-directed learning also has gained more widespread acceptance of late. An automated method of delivering highly relevant education based on the knowledge levels of individual clinician learners, self-directed learning boosts relevancy and improves patient care. Web 2.0 offers tools to infuse unprecedented levels of interaction into CME and brings with it social media, widgets, interactive video, and many other innovative ways to share information with and among medical professionals. CME providers must harness these tools to continue improving the educational experiences offered to medical professionals. Retention Tools Another safe bet for continuing medical education’s immediate future is that the use of retention tools to improve outcomes will continue to grow. A straightforward and commonsense approach to improving outcomes, retention tools increase learning by following up after the initial education has been delivered to reinforce the education through case vignettes, articles, Ask The Experts, short quizzes, and other formats. No crystal ball is required to see that change is under way. CME will keep evolving as healthcare professionals continue to get more comfortable communicating and interacting through the Web. So CME providers must embrace Web 2.0, and fast, because Web 3.0 lurks just around the corner. CME LLC, Irvine, Calif., provides high-quality lifelong learning opportunities for clinicians through a variety of convenient learning formats. For more information, visit cmellc.com.

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