Continuing medical education with a personalized monthly newsletter

The periodic newsletter is an approach to continuing medical education whose value is difficult to measure. A six-page monthly newsletter covering cancer and ambulatory medicine topics has been developed in two departments of a university medical center to meet perceived educational needs of new regional primary care practitioners and to maintain a helping relationship between university based and practicing physicians. The newsletter is sent free of charge to requesting clinicians. Each issue of the newsletter is introduced by a personalized letter signed individually by the editor. A reader survey was conducted to evaluate the interest of recipients and the content, usefulness, and format of the newsletter. A usable response rate of 76% was achieved. The evaluation documented that most readers found the publication useful in their practices, remembered receiving issues specifically, kept issues themselves after circulation to colleagues, and read the cover letter. Compared with conference or formal journal instructional methods of continuing medical education, a newsletter may consistently reach a larger audience at a fraction of the cost.