For all its advantages, online CME shouldn’t replace all face-to-face learning, Dr. Kopelow says.
“Physicians consult colleagues and reflect on what they have learned before integrating the new information into their practice for the benefit of patients,” he adds. “It is this process that accredited CME promotes and supports. Online CME supports this process, but it does not replace the total process of continuing professional development.”
Dr. Feldman says physicians will have to decide for themselves what works for them, particularly if reduced CME spending by the drug industry continues to crimp offerings.
“There’s going to be a huge sea change there in terms of folks needing to decide where they’re going to want to spend their CME money,” he adds. “Are they going to choose some of these easier-to-use, online CME offerings if they think that going to meetings is becoming prohibitively expensive? Only time is going to tell.”
CME in History
1847: The American Medical Association (AMA) is founded, and one of its first two committees is the Committee on Medical Education.
1901: The committee is recast as the Council on Medical Education, the name it still goes by.
1940s-’50s: The council’s eye is trained on postgraduate medical education (PGME), resulting in a 1955 report that found nearly one-third of 5,000 surveyed physicians reported they had participated in PGME in the preceding five years.
1968: AMA establishes the AMA Physician Recognition Award (PRA). The related credit system was developed to determine qualifications for the PRA.
1981: AMA and six other national organizations form the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). The AMA only allows PRA credits to be designated and awarded by organizations accredited by the ACCME or by a state medical society recognized by the ACCME.
2011: AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs adopts a policy that urges avoiding industry funding of CME when possible to avoid potential bias issues.
Source: American Medical Association