Post-Doc: satisfying the information needs of general practitioners in continuing medical education and daily...

The learning needs of General Practitioners (GPs) are not optimally covered by traditional ways of Continuing Medical Education (CME). The European-funded Post-Doc project sets up a model for a European internet-based infra-structure and learning environment to support GPs' individual CME activities, focusing on problems of daily work. It integrates education, information and communication for both daily work and learning at home. Based upon a user requirements analysis, the service includes multimedia training applications, selections of relevant information sources, a calendar of events, and communication facilities. The service is intended to fit in existing health care structures and accreditation systems. Because of different languages and user requirements in Post-Doc's regions each region builds an own website. The regional prototypes are built and evaluated in cooperation with small core user groups. This regional approach proved feasible and also influenced the network structure with regional demonstrator websites and one master website including central functionality.