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Toward continuous medical education

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Abstract

While traditional continuing medical education (CME) courses increase participants’ knowledge, they have minimal impact on the more relevant end points of physician behavior and patient outcomes. The interactive potential of online CME and its flexibility in time and place offer potential improvements over traditional CME. However, more emphasis should be placed on continuing education that occurs when clinicians search for answers to questions that arise in clinical practice, instead of that which occurs at an arbitrary time designated for CME. The use of learning portfolios and informationists can be integrated with self-directed CME to help foster a culture of lifelong learning.

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Correspondence to Roni F. Zeiger MD.

Additional information

Dr. Zeiger is supported by the Veterans Affairs Office of Academic Affairs, Health Services Research and Development Service, and the Office of the Chief Information Office. I wish to thank Eva Aagaard, MD, for her critical review of the manuscript.

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Zeiger, R.F. Toward continuous medical education. J GEN INTERN MED 20, 91–94 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30049.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30049.x

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