Efficacy of continuing medical education on knowledge of general practitioners

Continuing medical education (CME) is a necessary way to keep graduated physicians knowledge and practice up-to-date, thus, play an important role in improving health care. Several years after implementing these programs in the country of Iran, it is necessary evaluate the efficacy of these programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge of participants in CME program before and after of CME programs.

All general practitioners (GPs) who were participated in CME programs of the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (Sari, Iran) in the spring of 2006 entered in the study. A self directed and multi choice questionnaire was designed to seek demographic characteristics and knowledge of them about titles by programs. Its reliability was evaluated by internal consistency and validity by attending. The questionnaires were distributed before and after of each program. Data was analyses by SPSS and paired T- test.

From 300 participates, 235 persons were completed the questioner (q) (response rate=78%). The mean points of ENT q before and after program was 9.15±1.95 and 9.75±1.61, respectively (total point 20). In addition, these mean points were 9.85 ±2.29 and 10.22 ±1.79 (total 18) for general surgery, 11.79±2.65 and 14.12±3.38 (total 23) for psychiatry, 6.48±2.55 and 8.52±3.3 (total 19) for ophthalmology, 5.83±2.39 and 9.07±2.53 (total 17) for urology, and 7.79±2.11 and 10.68±2.54 (total 24)for dermatology.

The mean scores of knowledge of GPs were low and CME programs could not improve it, therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the contents and methods of CME programs for improving knowledge of general practitioners.