Interdisciplinary CME: is the need evident? Results of the evaluation of CME articles in the Journal of the German Medical Association

Abstract

Background. Medicine has become more and more specialised over the last decades, which in turn has increased the need for interdisciplinary information exchange. The aim of this study is to describe the extent of the need for interdisciplinary knowledge transfer in a contemporary medical specialist population. Methods. We analysed reading by medical specialty of 53 accredited continuing medical education (CME) articles published in Deutsches Ärzteblatt (“Journal of the German Medical Association”), which is available to all German physicians. Results. In all, 86,340 physicians participated 1,007,923 times by reading one or more of the 53 articles. In fewer than 50% of all cases, 89.5% of all participants read content belonging to their specialty (rated by self-assessment). The highest percentage of interdisciplinary use of print CME was found in the group of physicians working neither in ambulatory care nor in hospitals, that is, those physicians working in the public health area, with public authorities, etc. Linear regression analysis in the biggest group of specialists (internal medicine) showed a tendency for more interdisciplinary use in the group of younger participants, female physicians, and those working in ambulatory care. Conclusion. This study demonstrates a somewhat unexpectedly high interdisciplinary use of medical information from freely available CME articles. The extent of interdisciplinary use of information most probably reflects an individual need of similar magnitude. These findings should stimulate CME providers more often to plan interdisciplinary CME independent of the mode of presentation.

Keywords

• interdisciplinary CME
• CME in print media
• needs assessment
• German Medical Association