Abbreviations: CPD, continuing professional development;ICT, information and communication technology; MB/S, megabytes per second; SNS, social networking service
IntroductionOne of the factors for rural physicians to continue their rural practices is continuing professional development (CPD). 1 In Japan, academic training has been reported to be the most common type of CPD, followed in descending order by participation in academic meetings, academic activities including doctor of philosophy programs. 2 The use of tele-education (remote-support systems using information and communication technology (ICT) in medical education) has many advantages (e.g., travel costs and time), 1 and is rapidly developing. However, tele-education has not been available in many rural regions until recently because of insufficient communication infrastructure. In addition, no reports have described academic start-up support using tele-education "based on rural physicians' values, ways of life and self-esteem". We aimed to investigate the effects related to rural physicians' self-esteem and CPD of first-time academic activities using tele-education by a general physician belonging to general medicine department of a university.
Materials and methodsOur academic remote-support system using tele-education was provided from September 2016. The learner was a rural general physician (HN) with 11 years of rural practice after his graduation. He solely, as a single physician, ran the only clinic on the western-most isolated island in Japan (population: 1,700), which had insufficient communication infrastructure (maximum Internet line speed: I. Improvement in his self-esteem as a physician II. Realization of the importance of a sincere attitude to confront the community and region III. The better relationships with other medical professionals Int J Fam Commun Med. 2017;1(3):58-60 58 Citation: Namiki H, Kobayashi T. Academic start-up support using tele-education improved self-esteem of a rural general physician. Int J Fam Commun Med.Citation: Namiki H, Kobayashi T. Academic start-up support using tele-education improved self-esteem of a rural general physician. Int J Fam Commun Med.