Continuing Professional Development in Rheumatology for Primary Care Clinicians: A Systematic Review.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Rheumatology
• Continuing Professional Development

Background:

• Primary care clinicians (PCCs) require up-to-date rheumatology knowledge to manage patients with rheumatic diseases.
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is crucial for maintaining and enhancing PCCs' skills in rheumatology.
• Assessing the quality of existing rheumatology CPD is essential for identifying gaps and improving educational strategies.

Approach:

• A systematic review was conducted to evaluate published rheumatology-focused CPD for PCCs.
• Searches were performed across multiple databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, ERIC, CINAHL, Sinico) for studies post-1993 in North America.
• The Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument and Kirkpatrick levels were used to assess study quality and learning outcomes.

Key Points:

• Nine studies met the inclusion criteria, with most focusing on noninflammatory arthritis rather than inflammatory conditions.
• Autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, were underrepresented in the reviewed CPD.
• Newer CPD increasingly incorporates multimodal and active learning strategies, moving away from purely didactic methods.
• Face-to-face interventions predominated, with limited use of e-learning, despite its growing popularity.

Conclusions:

• Published rheumatology CPD is shifting towards more interactive and active learning modalities.
• There is a need to explore virtual CPD options to enhance accessibility for PCCs.
• Autoimmune diseases represent a significant gap in current rheumatology CPD, requiring future expansion.
• The efficacy of CPD is difficult to ascertain due to a focus on learner satisfaction and knowledge rather than patient outcomes.