A PROPOSAL for STANDARDIZATION and IMPROVEMENT in CONTINUOUS MEDICAL EDUCATION

Ferhan Girgin Sagin*, Eser Yildirim Sozme, Ege University Medical Faculty, Department of Biochemistry, Izmir, Republic of Turkiye

PURPOSE: The concept of continuous medical education (CME) has grown as a response to the advancement of the professional knowledge; to fill the gaps in the enormous growing area of medicine, to present scientific innovations / new techniques or to provide new skills and attitudes in medicine. Many institutes / universities provide CME opportunities and there seems to be a serious need for standardization of the planning, coordination and implementation of these courses. This need arises from the unique properties of CME such as the necessity to meet the expectations of the target participants, the need for a well-defined core content that will be delivered through adult education strategies and the demand for a comprehensive evaluation system that will lead to continuing improvement of the education.

METHODS: This presentation will deliver the results of our work aimed at developing a standardization system for any institute coordinating and implementing CME programs. Through detailed documentation (Form for Application for Organizing a CME Program, Form for Evaluation of the CME Program, Report of CME Program, Form for Continuous Improvement in CME Program, etc.) and evaluation procedures, we propose a standardized system for planning, implementing, evaluating and improving CME programs.

RESULTS / CONCLUSION / FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The proposed system not only guarantees the delivery of a well defined core content with appropriate teaching strategies and sufficient reference material but more importantly monitors the quality and usefulness of courses through course audits and the analysis of course evaluation sheets. Thus, conformance to requirements and continuing improvement can also well be achieved through such a standardized system.

***The proposal presented above is accepted by The Committee of Education of The Turkish Biochemistry Association, and is in use for the coordination of its’ CME programs since January 2007.