[How do Norwegian dermatologists keep themselves professionally updated?]

We have explored continuing medical education among Norwegian dermatologists, especially their use of medical journals and the Internet.

In April 2001, a questionnaire was sent to 170 dermatologists, including junior doctors in specialist training. 129 questionnaires (76%) were returned, of which 16 were excluded from the analysis.

Mean time used per week reading articles in medical journals was 149 minutes (95% confidence interval (CI) 129-168 minutes). 90% of the respondents had Internet access at work and/or at home. Hospital consultants used the Internet for medical purposes for significantly more time per week than doctors in private practice (146 minutes (CI 98-195 minutes) versus 72 minutes (CI 52-93 minutes)). More hospital doctors had difficulties in getting or taking time off to attend courses and congresses (p < 0.01) and with financial costs (p < 0.001) than those in private practice. Most dermatologists found the paper version of journals (88%) and courses and congresses (79%) to be important for their continuing medical education, while fewer found medical databases on the Internet (57%) and the Internet version of journals (35%) to be so. In a logistic regression model, fewer private practitioners than hospital doctors (p = 0.011) and more female than male doctors (p = 0.014) had a feeling of insufficiency in regard to the increasing amount of medical information.

The Internet has become part of the professional life of most Norwegian dermatologists, but has so far not replaced traditional forms of continuing medical education.