Will this benefit my patients? Expected benefits of information from a continuing medical education program may lead to higher participation rates by family physicians

Issue title: Evaluating online health information sources using a mixed methods approach: Part 3

Guest editors: Vera Granikov and Piere Pluye

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Gonzalez-Reyes, Araceli^a | Schuster, Tibor^{a; b} | Grad, Roland^{a; c; d} | Pluye, Pierre^{a; e; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Family Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada | [b] Canada Research Chair in Biostatistical Methods for Primary Health Care Research, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada | [c] Lady Davis Institute, Montréal, QC, Canada | [d] Herzl Family Practice Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, QC, Canada | [e] FRQS Senior Research Scholar, QC, Canada

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Pierre Pluye, Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, 5858 Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges, suite 328. Montréal, QC, H3S 1Z1, Canada. Tel.: +1 514 398 8483; E-mail: pierre.pluye@mcgill.ca.

Abstract: In this commentary, we will describe our study and report results that will be of interest to information and education professionals and researchers. Evidence-based medicine requires health professionals to keep up to date with new research-based knowledge. Canadian physicians must now participate in Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities. CME strives to improve clinician performance as well as patient health outcomes. Our study was aimed to assess whether physicians who participated in a CME program and expected health benefits for their patients following an elearning activity were more likely to have higher participation in the program in subsequent years. Weekly treatment Highlights were delivered by email to practicing family physicians across Canada, who rated them using the Information Assessment Method (IAM). The number of expected benefits for patients reported by participants during 2016 was plotted against the number of instances of participation in 2017. Results show that the number of expected benefits in 2016 was correlated with the number of IAM ratings in 2017.

Keywords: Continuing medical education, evidence-based medicine, health information management

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-200371

Journal: Education for Information, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 51-58, 2020