Journal of European CME最新文献

COVID-19 pandemic created a need to improvise and redefine blended learning to be executed fully online. Background information on the effectiveness of fully online blended learning activities, especially for surgical disciplines is limited. This study describes a fully online blended learning course format on spinal surgery and aims to provide data regarding it effectiveness. Fully online blended courses on three topics of spinal surgery designed as six-week asynchronous and followed by 3-day live parts. Learning gaps (LGs) were identified with a survey at the beginning of asynchronous part, at its end, and at the end of the live part. The effectiveness of the asynchronous and live parts was assessed by LGs and a quiz, login statistics of learners and faculty and a post-course survey. Participants' LGs decreased in all courses, statistically significant in two. Faculty and learner login rates significantly correlated with each other. Faculty and learner satisfaction was very high. A fully online blended learning course can be delivered effectively on spine surgery with a high participant and faculty satisfaction rate. The asynchronous part contributes to learning significantly.

Healthcare professionals need to maintain their knowledge and skills to deliver the best possible care to patients. Medical societies play an important role as providers of continuing medical education (CME) and have actively continued this role during the COVID-19 pandemic adapting the delivery of education to virtual meetings and courses. The Biomedical Alliance in Europe CME Experts Committee conducted two surveys to collect information on the delivery of CME, generally, and during the COVID-19 pandemic from the member medical societies. In this article, we will present the most relevant data collected and share some reflections based on this analysis.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an online course to enable orthopaedic surgeons to acquire the core competencies necessary to prevent and treat fracture-related infections (FRI). This study included orthopaedic surgeons and residents from Latin American countries who attended an online course focused on FRI. The online course included: didactic lectures, small-group clinical case discussions, and panel case discussions. The course was delivered using Zoom® platform and designed to address four core competencies: prevention, definition and diagnosis, antimicrobial therapy, and surgical treatment. An online questionnaire was created distributing 16 questions through six clinical scenarios. Participants were invited to answer the questionnaire before and after the course. Sixty of the 78 course participants answered the pre-course, and 42 the post-course assessment. Relative to before the course, the mean post-course assessment score rose significantly for prevention of FRI (4.1 before and 4.5 after; p = 0.014), definition and diagnosis (2.4 before and 3.4 after; p = 0.001), and surgical treatment (2.2 before and 2.8 after; p = 0.011). The final score encompassing all four core competencies also rose significantly (2.7 before and 3.3 after; p = 0.001). The online course on FRI was feasible and effective, significantly increasing course users' knowledge of overall competency in managing FRI.

In this article, we examine the adaptation of learning among scientists and healthcare professionals in conferences and symposia from face-to-face to fully virtual meetings accelerated in the last years. Advantages and limitations for both settings have been described in different research studies but the effectiveness of learning can be reflected similarly by applying five fundamental principles of learning, which are based on empirical research in cognitive psychology. From a practical context, we compared the individual learning outcomes from two satellite symposia conducted face-to-face in 2019 and virtually in 2021 at the European Congress of Urology, EAU. Although both conference formats were almost identical, the five principles of learning were applied in both symposia. There were also some differences due to adaptation to online conferences, and our findings suggest that the virtual conference was perceived as significantly more effective than the face-to-face conference on all five criteria, and digital learning is a valid alternative to face-to-face conferences. What still needs to be better understood and analysed is the informal learning that is taking place during conferences, but suggesting an active design of any digital event by combining "technical literacy· with "learning literacy" will enable us to better analyse and study the impact of learning using the five learning principles in the design of other events in the future.