Online CME: an effective alternative to face-to-face delivery

The Pharmacotherapies Accreditation Course (PAC) is a continuing medical education (CME) course designed to prepare practitioners for accreditation as pharmacotherapies prescribers for opioid dependence. The course incorporates a preparation stage, a workshop stage and a clinical placement component. The PAC continues to be successfully delivered in face-to-face mode since 2001. From 2003 onwards, an online alternative of the PAC was also implemented.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online alternative to an existing face-to-face CME workshop in preparing practitioners for accreditation as a pharmacotherapies prescriber for opioid dependence.

Participants were 62 practitioners who undertook the PAC between 2003 and 2006. A pretest/posttest-control group design was used, with outcome measures across the domains of knowledge, skill, and attitudes, together with a course feedback survey for both the online and face-to-face modes of the course.

Results demonstrate that the online CME mode was equally as effective as the face-to face mode in preparing participants for their role in the treatment and management of opioid dependence, and was also rated highly by participants.

The findings have implications for the effective design and delivery of e-learning environments for professional practice, in terms of equipping participants with requisite clinical knowledge and skills and facilitating the development of attitudes congruent with professional practice.