Doctors traveling less for continuing medical education

Doctors are becoming less likely to go out of their communities for CME.

By Jay Greene, amednews staff. March 12, 2001.

Fewer physicians attended out-of-town meetings last year for continuing medical education than in 1999, according to a survey of physicians by Medical Meetings Magazine.

In 2000, 34% of physicians said they had not attended an out-of-town meeting compared with 25% in 1999. In 1994, the first year of the survey, 100% of respondents attended at least one out-of-town meeting.

One reason for the decrease in attendance appears to be that fewer physicians are reimbursed for the cost of attending CME meetings. In 2000, 49% said they had not received reimbursement for attending CME meetings compared with 44.5% in 1999. Some 28% said they had 75% or more of their expenses covered in 1999 compared with 21% in 2000.

Physicians may be choosing to attend CME meetings closer to home.

In 2000, 26% of physicians said they had attended a local meeting compared with about 20% in 1999, the survey said. In addition, Internet CME use increased to 7% of physicians from 5% in 1999, but both years are way down from the 19% who said they used the Internet for CME in 1998.

Despite more emphasis on CME credit by state medical licensing bodies and specialty societies, the average respondent is earning fewer category 1 CME credits in the past three years. In 2000, doctors said they had averaged 51 hours of CME credit compared with 63 hours in 1999. In 1998, the average respondent earned 78 hours of CME credit. [...]

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