Overcoming remoteness in CME videoteleconferencing: "I want my MD TV"

Videoteleconferencing in continuing medical education (CME) is here to stay. In the growing health care climate, with increased mergers of institutions and facilities, education's reliance on this medium promises to grow. This project summary describes one large metropolitan institution's effort to improve the commitment to, use in, and effectiveness of videoteleconferencing in its multisite delivery of CME programs. The institution is a nationally renowned interdisciplinary teaching and research hospital health center, with more than 1000 beds. The medical staff numbers more than 1100. The CME program, accredited by the Medical Society of the State of New York, sponsors more than 44 activities a year, awarding over 13,000 certified category 1 CME credits and serving a combined total of over 806 participating MDs and DOs. A study team comprised of the Medical Board Education Committee's Chair-director of CME, an adult education consultant-professor of adult education, and a visual literacy consultant undertook a year-long qualitative research project to explore issues, unearth dilemmas in practice, and generate recommendations for future policy and practice related to videoteleconferencing. The primary objective was to derive strategies for enhancing the educational effectiveness and community building potential of videoteleconferencing at the hospital-health center.