Impact of an educational program on physician cancer control knowledge and activities

Continuing medical education (CME) programs are a common way for physicians to keep up with new developments in medical care. CME has been criticized as poorly evaluated at best and ineffective at worst. Proposed modifications in the traditional CME format include a role for influential peers, physician discussion groups, and self-formulated contracts. As part of a project that is testing methods to improve primary care physician cancer control performance, we provided an eight-hour educational program that included these proposed modifications and that addressed early detection of breast, cervical, and colon cancer and counseling on nutrition and smoking cessation. Physician knowledge improved after the program in four of the five content areas. In addition, physicians reported significant increases in their cancer control activities after six months. We conclude that cancer control CME programs that use interactive discussion groups, influential peers, and self-formulated contracts are feasible, well received by physicians, and result in improvements in knowledge and self-reported cancer control behavior.