Meeting the CPD needs of radiologists in rural and remote Australia

Abstract

Since 2003 the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists has delivered continuing professional development (CPD) programmes by vidéoconférence to rural radiologists and associated professionals in Australia and New Zealand. Multipoint videoconferencing via ISDN at a bandwidth of 128 kbit/s is used. In 2005 there were 21 videoconferenced meetings. No quantitative evaluation has been performed, but participants appear to be positive about the educational value. Rural radiologists have been hard pressed to gain CPD points due to distance factors and problems with professional backup when absent. Using videoconferencing to duplicate familiar educational formats, we have succeeded in taking CPD to them.