Continuing Medical Education in the Developing World: Timely Need for Better Structure and Regulation as a Quality Issue.

Abstract

Continuing medical education (CME) generally aims to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession. CME covers the body of knowledge and skills generally recognized and accepted by the profession as within the basic medical sciences, the discipline of clinical medicine, and the provision of health care to the public. CME credit hours are generally earned through events approved by the recognized CME Committees. Physicians earn credit based upon the number of learning contact hours. Most licensing bodies require a set number of these credit hours for renewal of license (maintenance of certification).  In the developing world, medical registration may not be subject to an updating (revalidation) process and may simply mean having obtained a medical qualification and paid renewal fees for the “Doctor’s Syndicate”.  We propose that, for the sake of patients’ safety and other benefits, doctors should earn a minimum number of CME hours as a prerequisite of their maintenance of medical certification. In the development phase, voluntary scheme may be adopted. To encourage provision of such programs, the accreditation process, should initially be simple and may get progressively stricter at later stages. To avoid pharmaceutical bias the accrediting body could come up with a list of clinical topics that are of high relevance and importance to the practice, and recent translational research findings. This could be done in collaboration with scientific societies and postgraduate academic institutions. We think maintaining a list of “credible providers” is more relevant than imposing a complicated application process with each event.  Using “paperless” online application and accreditation processes should save time and effort.  

Key words: Continuous professional development (CPD), Continuous medical education (CME), Postgraduate Education, Pharmaceutical promotion, Conflict of interest.