Cureus (06/18/2024) Pelletier, Jessica; Li, Yan; Cloessner, Emily; et al.
The "Continuing Medical Education on Stick" (CMES) initiative, developed by Techies Without Borders, seeks to close the gap in resource availability for continuing medical education (CME) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The high-impact program features a USB drive and the CMES-Pi computer, a cost-effective offline computer that provides access to CME content on iOS and Android devices using a custom phone application. To identify areas for improvement in the CMES database, researchers compared the curriculum map of the CMES library with the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) Exam outline. A survey of nearly 50 global users sought information on unmet educational needs and potential areas of improvement. The review identified CMES gaps in a number of clinical areas, including procedures, traumatic disorders, and geriatrics. Users also noted a dearth of content on practical skills, including electrocardiogram interpretation. The most useful areas for clinical practice, according to survey respondents, were emergency medical services/prehospital care, diagnostic imaging, and toxicology/pharmacology. Based on user feedback, the CMES platform added new content about the management of sickle cell disease and dermatologic conditions in darkly pigmented skin, and it launched a targeted podcast series on tropical diseases and locally relevant infectious diseases. "This educational [quality improvement] project has successfully identified specific areas where the CMES content library falls short of meeting the diverse needs of its users. To enhance the impact and relevance of the CMES, these deficiencies must be systematically addressed to better tailor the content to the local contexts and requirements of the targeted users," the researchers report.
Read More