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

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.