European CME needs the European Specialist Societies

<p>Massive open online courses (MOOCs) for continuing medical education – why and how?</p>

“…Didactic presentations or printed education materials, on the contrary, demonstrated very little beneficial effect 9. Still, quite often, CME is didactic and passive, associated largely with conferences or other in-person meetings, e.g., formal courses, symposia, etc 1. Despite proof of more effective CME techniques, the use of these less-effective techniques predominate 5,9.…”

“…Although many licensing boards mandate that physicians participate in a certain number of CME hours, some also require physicians to participate in mandatory topics that might have little to do with their clinical practice 10. In most countries, physicians are required to obtain CME credits, with assessment or documentation of clinical performance improvement 1,11. CME interventions can be more rewarding if they are designed for individual learning needs and preferences.…”

“…Perhaps leadership of this reform should fall on specialty medical societies who are uniquely placed to deliver balanced, disease-oriented and patient-centered education;15 are agencies for the accreditation of learning; and are responsible for maintaining professional standards.40 Where possible, CME content needs to evolve from its largely face-to-face delivery to take advantage of the capability of MOOCs. Needs assessment is essential to generate a list of specific “hot topics” through surveying CME stakeholders 1. Multi-media MOOCs with case-based active and interactive education are likely to become the preferred option for most CMEs and can ensure wider reach and long-term sustainability (Figure 2).…”

“…Physicians exert a deep impact on human life and are under constant pressure to learn when to intervene proactively, how to use complex investigative screening tools, and to be familiar with a vast variety of newly developed, potent yet potentially harmful, therapeutic agents 1. They have to deal with an aging population amidst changing population demographics and an increasing trend for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) 1,2. The pressure will be more intense on low- to middle-income countries (LMICs), where 80% of the world’s aging population will reside by 2050, adding to the burden of NCDs atop that of communicable diseases 2.…”