Still loading: There's quite a ways to go for Web-based continuing medical education

Online CME was going to be the next big thing, but reading journals on the Web is boring, and you need broadband to walk through a virtual lab. Solutions look to wed education and technology in new ways.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Oct. 14, 2002.

Sheree Starrett, MD, treats HIV patients at a correctional facility in New Jersey. When it comes to continuing medical education, she gets most of hers via the Internet.

"I've been doing CME online for as long as I've had access," the internist said. "It's been four or five years, maybe longer. Being in corrections and somewhat divorced from mainstream medicine, I don't have access to grand rounds or hospital functions."

Dr. Starrett is the perfect audience for online CME. She's outside of the typical medical environment and doesn't have easy access to traditional CME activities.

Armed with a cable modem, she avoids the delays common to those bound to phone lines. But even she isn't instantly drawn to the newer, more interactive programs that CME providers are hoping will lure more physicians to online CME.

"They can be hard to maneuver," she said, with some not allowing her to pick up where she left off or forcing her to listen to the whole lecture instead of letting her navigate to the section she needs.

"I get frustrated with more of the high-tech stuff," she said. "Slides and video are entertaining, but if you want to get to the meat it's easier to just read the text."

Dr. Starrett's experience may explain why physicians who, unlike her, have a bevy of opportunities for garnering CME credits have yet to embrace it online. According to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, online CME constituted only 4.4% of credits gathered in 2001, while 76% came from meeting attendance and 19.6% from journal reading and home study. [...]