Lectures top doctors' list of CME choices

The least effective format for learning is the most popular, one study says.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Jan. 26, 2004.

The study is a small one, but it reflects what many concede is a larger truth: Doctors prefer to go to lectures to earn their continuing medical education credits, even though research shows the format results in little change in physician behavior.

Lectures appeal to Richard Viken, MD, director of family medicine residents at the University of Texas Health Center in Tyler.

"I prefer a live body speaking to me," he said. That's why he favors lectures when he looks for ways to garner CME credit.

Coming in a close second for Dr. Viken is taped CME lectures, which he listens to during his work commute. "There's an intangible value in seeing your colleagues," Dr. Viken said. "As a group, we're gregarious and like to get together and share information."

Dr. Viken didn't take part in the study, "Continuing Medical Education: What Delivery Format Do Physicians Prefer?" published in the July 2003 issue of Journal of Continuing Education for the Health Professions. But he does practice in one of the four towns on which the study focused.

The study, done through the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, looked at physicians in San Angelo, Harlingen, Tyler and Lubbock -- four rural areas of Texas with high smoking rates.

Physicians were offered free CME on how to help prevent smoking and how to help smokers quit. They were offered live lectures and videotapes or Internet-based training in an effort to remove the common CME attendance barriers of time and convenience.