Key considerations for delivering impactful CME to HCPs
February 16, 2024 | CME, Health Education, IME, Journal publications, eLearning, medical journals
Learn how to drive engagement with HCPs through effective CME programs
Being up-to-speed with the latest diagnostic tools, disease management protocols, and innovations in treatment possibilities can provide healthcare professionals (HCPs) with valuable knowledge and the skills and professionalism needed to improve patient care and impact public health. Continuing medical education (CME) allows for this information to be absorbed in an environment that is independent from commercial influence and encourages reflective practice to reach expected outcomes. HCPs attach a lot of importance to the successful completion of CME activities not just because of their role in certification, licensure, or hospital privileges but also owing to the learning opportunities they provide.
Authoritative information is key to CME
CME activities are designed to address professional knowledge or practice gaps. Therefore, authoritative information plays a key role in this process. Although pharmaceutical organizations and medical device companies are major funders of medical education, HCPs may find content sourced from these companies too biased.1-4 Providing core educational content through validated and independent channels can enhance the credibility of CME activities and improve HCP engagement with them.
Funding targeted initiatives by publishers or societies that specialize in medical education is the best way for pharma and medical device companies to ensure their education goals are being furthered without influence or bias. Not only do publishers and societies emphasize the validation of content through peer review, but they also leverage a vast network of authors, editors, and reviewers.
— David Kempe, Accreditation Manager, US Projects, Wiley
How to design credible and meaningful CME programs and activities
- Follow regulations: Accredited CME providers need to ensure that all educational activities they design adhere to the standards of integrity and independence in medical education stipulated by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). A major qualifier of CME is independence from bias, and this step will assure HCPs that the CME provider has followed strict regulations with regard to commercial support and that the content has been independently created and validated by a community of experts and peers.
- Address a professional practice gap: CME should be relevant to professional needs, and this can be expanded to aspects that could improve practice-based learning or patient care among HCPs. Therefore, all CME activities begin with the identification of a professional practice gap. Societies and publishers could leverage their network to identify such gaps through published research, member/readership surveys, and expert opinions.
- Make a clear distinction between the educational and the promotional: Several journals or society publications run advertisements across their content formats. In such cases, setting up appropriate firewalls that separate the educational content from promotional content could be helpful. Transparently disclose all relevant information about sponsorship, conflicts of interest, faculty selection, allocation of finances, etc. David shares an example of a podcast created by Wiley as part of CME activities in the field of hematology: “At the beginning of this podcast, we acknowledge/disclose information about the annual commercial support this CME activity receives. We also disclose how we use these funds to ensure that the podcast remains freely available to all users. This strategy has proven to be successful.”
- Diversify the modalities of CME activities: Common modalities of CME include reading or reviewing scientific papers, attending industry conferences (local, regional, national, or international), taking online courses, and enrolling for in-person training programs. Today, time-poor HCPs may not be able to dedicate long periods of time to CME activities. Moreover, in recent years, owing to the influx of medical information and digitalization, HCPs prefer credible content that is delivered in easily digestible formats on channels they trust.5-8 Thus, it is important to think of CME beyond the conventional didactic mode and diversify activity formats to incorporate unique types of learning experiences. Examples of such formats include audio/video podcasts, visual abstracts, short live Q&A sessions, research summaries, or modular learning activities.
- Ensure CME is inclusive and accessible: Accessibility is an integral part of medical education today. There are several ways to improve the accessibility of CME activities, such as:
- Designing a learning environment that HCPs can easily navigate, e.g., using principles of user experience to help learners reach completion in as few clicks as possible
- Employing text-to-speech, captions, and other technologies to ensure content can be absorbed by all learners
- Making CME activities available and accessible in appropriate regions, especially if they are directly targeted/affected by a specific practice gap
- Ensuring the content is discoverable
- Leveraging society/publisher networks to including a broader pool of experts and peer reviewers in CME content creation
- Content is king, so ensure the quality of the CME content is high: Use independent faculty, editorial boards, or CME program alumni to create educational content. The involvement of a society or publisher in this area can increase content credibility, build trust, and boost the level of engagement.
- Consistency is key: Explore different channels to provide CME and monitor the performance of each to identify the channels that your target HCP audiences prefer. However, consistency is key—provide CME activities on a consistent basis to cultivate a growing learner, reader, or viewer base. This will help build high activity channels that keep HCPs engaged.
- Set up a robust mechanism to track and analyze impact: While metrics such as site visits or clicks are certainly helpful, the most significant aspect of gauging the impact of CME activities is short- and long-term outcome analysis. Most CME activities incorporate reflective aspects such as feedback forms, surveys, or post-tests, which encourage HCPs to look inward and share how they would apply the learnings from the CME activity to their practice immediately or in the future. Designing CME outcomes to align with tools such as Moore’s framework9 could also help map learner journeys along specific outcomes and make relevant changes to CME programs to maximize the value HCPs get. Capturing additional evaluation data to contextualize learning outcomes is also a great way to gauge the impact of CME. Sharing an example of peer review as a CME activity, David states: “Sometimes, it could take a year for HCPs to translate what they learned through CME into practice. In our manuscript review program, we look at whether or not HCPs’ continuous participation in manuscript review has ultimately had a positive impact on the quality of the peer reviews themselves, which will eventually contribute to a more robust publishing ecosystem.”
CME is an integral part of each HCP’s career, and designing and providing independent CME activities through validated channels are key to ensuring their efficacy and relevance. Supporting publishers and societies in strategic CME initiatives will allow pharmaceutical organizations and medical device companies to improve the field of education through need-based, independently verified learning activities that provide up-to-date best practices and improve patient care.
References
- Longitudinal comparison of continuing medical education learning objectives and intent-to-change statements of participants
- Adding value with educational content
- The future of continuing medical education: The roles of medical professional societies and the health care industry
- How pharma can harness educational content for an HCP engagement strategy
- Wiley Online Library (WOL) data 1 Jan, 2002 – 31 Dec, 2022
- Latest Research on Physician Use of Online Resources
- Engaging HCPs on their own terms: how pharma can adapt to the post-pandemic digital era
- Why do today’s physicians prefer to find information online?
- Achieving desired results and improved outcomes: Integrating planning and assessment throughout learning activities
This content was provided by Wiley