Journal of European CME (04/26/23) Khan, Yasser Saeed; Khoodoruth, Mohamed Adil Shah; Ghaffar, Adeel; et al.

In a new paper, researchers highlight the value of multisource feedback (MSF) in continuing medical education/continuing professional development (CME/CPD) and its worldwide effects on doctors' performance and patient experience. "We aimed to improve clinical practice, patient experience and CME/CPD standards through creating awareness among doctors regarding the importance of obtaining reliable feedback about their clinical performance using valid and recognized tools," the authors wrote. They characterized a novel CME program that adopted the U.K. General Medical Council's self-assessment questionnaire (SQ), patient questionnaire (PQ) and colleague questionnaire (CQ) to assess doctors' clinical performance in a Qatari outpatient child and adolescent mental health service. In all, 140 people participated in an Experience of Service Questionnaire exercise in 2019, up from 94 in a 2017 analysis. Respondents were separated into cohorts of children aged 9-11 years, young people aged 12-18 years and parents/carers. Parents/carers' satisfaction rates increased from 94% in 2017 to 100% in 2019, while children's rates rose from 75% to 90%. All of the young people were satisfied in both surveys, with one adolescent choosing to stay neutral. The percentage of participants in all three groups who reported either dissatisfaction or a lack of knowledge concerning the quality of overall care received fell from 4.25% in 2017 to 1.4% in 2019. Clinicians improved their annual appraisal scores by at least one point on the scale of 1 to 5, with 4 being the minimum score obtained. "The implementation of gold-standard MSF tools as part of the CME/CPD process has the potential to contribute to the improvement of overall patient care and service standards globally," the researchers noted.

Read More