BMC Medical Education (06/15/2022) Li, Guofu; Yu, Tingting; Zhang, Lichao; et al.
New research measured clinical endoscopists' use of the Hebei Biliary and Pancreatic Endoscopy Diagnosis and Treatment Alliance online platform for continuing medical education (CME) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors sent a questionnaire modeled after the "Doctor's Circle" app to nearly 4,000 platform registrants, which 703 completed. After joining the platform, 469 registered doctors (66.7%) said they felt it had impacted their endoscopic skills and 354 (50.3%) said it substantially improved their diagnostic ability. The results indicated significant differences concerning the role of sex, educational background, hospital grade, specialty, and professional title in physicians' ability to diagnose biliary- and pancreatic-related diseases. CME also helped narrow the gap in disease diagnosis, treatment, and clinical experience between senior doctors and students such as professional postgraduates and public clinic trainees. Registered doctors who used the platform for 6-12 months, participated for 1-2 hours per session, and frequently played back course videos saw the most benefit in CME application. The researchers suggest this model should be utilized to "constantly improve the organization of the content and methods of continuing medical education courses, make the online platform better serve the majority of medical workers, and effectively improve the comprehension levels of clinicians."
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