Yet another source has chimed in on this one: Now an article in AM News confirms what we've found in our Physicians Survey: Docs like their med ed live, not online. (Thanks once again to Anne Taylor-Vaisey for the pointer.)
- survey of 2,000 physicians shows that Webcasts were the least popular option, with many doctors saying they were disappointed with the quality of the content or frustrated with the technology.
I'm still not entirely sure why, especially when online CME is designed so much better than the online education for most of the rest of us, with interactivity, self-tests, pre and post evaluations, links to resources where you can learn more, etc. I was talking with a friend who is a meeting planner the other day about a meeting she had recently attended, and she noted that the best learning happened in casual conversations after the meeting itself ended. I know, it's almost a cliche by now, but I think these off-the-cuff interactions that only seem to happen at live meetings really do make the difference. Either that or the food--just kidding! But online CME providers need to think about this--how can you incorporate that same type of interaction in an Internet environment? If you can lick that, I think these numbers will start to change.
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