Search results

The purpose of this paper is to objectively assess the best type of continuing medical education (CME) activity that makes the most impact on the physicians’ behavior in changing their practices and to derive future needs for planning effective CME activities.

This paper presents a survey. A questionnaire was designed, pilot‐tested and administered in a CME session to all the health physicians of a private medical university in Sind province of Pakistan. The questionnaire incorporated seven core items that assessed the impact of different types of CME activities on the physicians. The respondents rated the impact of CME based on their competence, performance, patient care processes and management on a five‐point Likert scale. Respondents’ responses in terms of type, committed time, usefulness, sponsorships and settings were also analyzed.

A total of 194 health physicians completed the questionnaire (response rate=100 per cent); 56 per cent of the responses were from female physicians. A majority of the respondents in their replies ranked local large‐group lectures, symposiums and workshops higher than journal clubs, conferences and on‐line CMEs. More than half of the respondents rated the impact of CMEs on a five‐point Likert scale as good or very good. This was in relevance to increase in their competence, performance, patient care processes and change in management style.

The data generated through the survey are subject to desirability bias and may over‐represent the responses. The other limitation was the single university setting.

The methodology can thus be adaptable by CME planners within the region to assess the impact of the current CME activities in improving physicians’ competence and professionalism, and in designing effective academic activities for the future.

There is no other study that demonstrates the impact of the types of CME on physicians in the Pakistani medical profession and hence this paper is of high interest.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the perspective debates upon the real-time challenges for a three-staged Performance Improvement Continuing Medical Education (PI-CME) model, an innovative and potential approach for future CME, to inform providers to think, prepare and to act proactively.

In this discussion, the challenges associated for adopting the American Medical Association’s three-staged PI-CME model are reported.

Not many institutions in USA are using a three-staged performance improvement model and then customizing it to their own healthcare context for the specific targeted audience. They integrate traditional CME methods with performance and quality initiatives, and linking with CME credits.

Overall the US health system is interested in a structured PI-CME model with the potential to improve physicians practicing behaviors.

Knowing the dearth of evidence for applying this structured performance improvement methodology into the design of CME activities, and the lack of clarity on challenges inherent to the process that learners and providers encounter. This paper establishes all-important first step to render the set of challenges for a three-staged PI-CME model.

The objective of this paper is to explore how learning needs of physicians are best achieved when planning for appropriate continuing medical education activities.

This paper examines the informal types of needs‐assessment as opposed to formal types when identifying the learning needs of physicians.

This paper projects how informal types of needs‐assessment probe more deeply into the opinions and perceptions of physicians, thus complementing with formal methods when planning appropriate academic activities.

Informal types of needs‐assessment show promise in deriving a physician's individual learning needs, but has limitations as the educational activities proposed and undertaken would not necessarily benefit a larger group and, as they are usually unshared, would result in unimpressive utilization of educational resources.

Although the method of informal needs‐assessment is noteworthy, when planning academic activities on a larger scale and for wider gain, the formal methods of needs‐assessment are to be preferred.

This paper establishes that the informal method of needs‐assessment is significant in obtaining the true learning needs of the physicians but should always be complemented by formal methods.

The objective of this paper is to build an understanding of how to bring about change, improve relationships, facilitate knowledge creation and sharing, and support coherence and sense‐making among clinical faculty with little or no background in medical education.

In this process the conventional Delphi approach was used, as it was believed that it would help in gaining the most reliable agreement of opinions of a diverse group of faculty members in the shortest time.

The paper finds that the instructional and assessment tools and approaches that were being used were mostly traditional. The challenge was to get them to a consensus as most of the faculty/teachers were unsure about replacing the traditional approaches which were “time tested” to newer “evidence‐based” methodology. This paper demonstrates that four features – namely, anonymity, iteration, controlled feedback and cumulative statistical group response – are the key contributory factors to moving the “unsure group” to an agreement.

Conventional silent technique shows promise in getting the “non‐educationists” on the same page without much friction, but has limitations as it was limited to a specific group and a single university setting.

This process created connections between the faculty members that carry a long‐lasting effect and not just the resolution of the problem of the day.

This paper establishes that this exercise will bring about a positive change in the attitude and practices of the faculty /teachers and can help them to implement “evidence based” methodology for teaching and learning.

This article aims to measure quality by applying the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model at three different participation levels, in a Karachi teaching university dental hospital.

The case study assessed the eight EFQM model excellence concepts as benchmarks for providing quality services: results orientation; customer focus; leadership and constancy of purpose; management by processes and facts; people development and involvement; continuous learning, innovation and improvement; partnership development; and corporate social responsibility. This study was conducted at Hamdard University Dental Hospital (HUDH), located in Karachi – part of the largest privately‐owned university in Pakistan. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews with internal stakeholders at three levels (management, faculty and student).

Continuous learning, innovation and improvement; partnership development; and corporate social responsibility were satisfactorily represented.

The EFQM assessment was limited to a single university dental hospital, hence findings cannot be generalized.

The article highlights that it is envisaged that this exercise will bring about a positive change in attitude and will stimulate institute staff to kick start the self assessment process and implement measures leading to better quality practices, thus establishing a continuous quality improvement cycle.