CME in the Time of COVID-19: Educating Healthcare Professionals at the Point-of-care and Improving Performance Outcomes. Issue 1 (1st January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Damaske, Janet; Walsh, Wendy; McKay, Jennifer
• Is Part Of: Journal of European CME. Volume 9:Issue 1(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01-01
• Subjects: CME -- COVID-19 -- instructional design -- performance outcomes -- point-of-care -- UpToDate; Medicine -- Study and teaching (Continuing education) -- Europe -- Periodicals; 610.7114
• DOI: 10.1080/21614083.2020.1832798
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2161-4073

Abstract

ABSTRACT: UpToDate® is a point-of-care clinical resource used by nearly 2 million clinicians worldwide. Users in the USA and other regions can obtain continuing education credits after researching clinical questions at the point-of-care. As part of the CME credit redemption process, participants provide feedback on the information researched during the UpToDate® learning activity. We examined the impact of UpToDate® searches on clinical decision-making related to COVID-19. Between January 1 and 31 August 2020, UpToDate® added more than 40 topic reviews on various aspects of COVID-19 diagnosis and management, and developed new methods for delivering COVID-19 content to our learners. During the observation period, participants accessed COVID-19-related topic reviews over 7.5 million times. Data collected from CME activity evaluations and user feedback suggested that the learning activity had a significant impact on clinical decision-making. Over 94% reported that they modified their management strategies as a result of using UpToDate®, and 97% reported that use of UpToDate® led to improvement in care. These findings support the benefit of self-directed, point-of-care learning activities on the clinical management of patients during a global pandemic.