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Volume 16 (3)
Volume 16, Issue 3, Summer 1996
J Contin Educ Health Prof 1996; 16(3):159-166
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Implications for Undergraduate and Graduate Education Derived from Quantitative Research in Continuing Medical Education: Lessons Learned from an Automobile
Dave Davis, MD, FCFP
Maryann Thomson, BHSc (PT), MSc
A b s t r a c t
The purpose of this paper is to highlight key factors influencing the effectiveness
of continuing medical education (CME) and to explore implications for undergraduate and
graduate medical education. We briefly present the results of a recent systematic review of
CME on physician performance and on health care outcomes and explore the earlier phases
of medical education from three perspectives: needs assessment, type of educational intervention
(format), and evaluation. First, it appears that needs assessment may play an increasingly
important role in graduate and undergraduate education, especially given the diversity of students
and residents in their prior training and experience. Second, educational interventions
including practice-based systems such as reminders are more effective than more traditional
interventions such as conferences (didactic presentations) and printed materials, at least in
the CME setting. Lectures and printed materials may be an efficient way of delivering con-tent,
but alone may be insufficient to change practice even in undergraduate education. Third,
the issue of evaluation, from both the micro (student) and macro (program) levels has implications
for undergraduate and residency education. In CME, the issue of competency assessment
has begun to be addressed in a rigorous and planned manner, derived in part from the area
of remedial education. The paper concludes with a call for a similar attempt to answer the
basic question "Do undergraduate and graduate education really work?"
Keywords: continuing medical education; graduate education; quantitative research; undergraduate education
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