JECME Special Collection: Digitisation of Continuing Education in the Health Professions.

Abstract

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it was expected that this would cause a major decline in the number of continuing medical education (CME) options and that physicians in Germany would not be able to meet their CME requirements. Whereas this expectation partly holds true, looking back at the experience of more than 18 months of restrictions caused by the pandemic in this country one could also say that there has never been a more suitable time to experience continuing education. At the start of the pandemic, in particular, physicians often needed to be both pragmatic and flexible in their efforts to expand their skills due to the volatile situation and the implementation of contact restrictions. Physicians learned a great deal every day during this period. For example, special outpatient clinics were set up to treat patients with respiratory symptoms, new organisational structures were created, Corona hospitals were established. Physicians also listened to podcasts by scientific experts on a daily basis. Since the system of selfadministration in Germany defines how CME is to be carried out, these occasions for professional development were unceremoniously recognised with a corresponding number of CME points for the CME certificate. After a short period of transition, providers of inperson CME quickly resumed their activities by embracing digital formats. As webinars became the primary digital CME format, the State Chambers of Physicians adjusted their procedures for assessing and granting points accordingly. The crucial step, which was accelerated by the pandemic and associated contact restrictions, was that “virtual attendance”, e.g. in a webinar, largely replaced “live, in-person attendance”, e.g. in a lecture hall. Experience has shown that this transition can be implemented very successfully if certain criteria are met (e.g. through the monitoring of digital attendance and subsequent learning assessments). While the pandemic has not yet come to an end, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which a webinar component would not be integrated into CME curricula even after the pandemic. Webinars reach a much wider audience. They are more familyand climate-friendly than inperson CME events which might involve extensive travel for some participants. One sensible and promising approach is a combination of hybrid CME events where people meet as a group, and learning through guided selfstudy via an e-learning platform independent of location and time. Digital simulations will present a new and exciting challenge. There are already applications available that can be used to practise medical procedures and skills, e.g. taking a patient’s medical history, surgery routines, emergency treatments. There is a lot of potential here. Physicians can prepare themselves well for inperson training or even real-world assignments. To guide the medical profession through this process, the German Medical Association published an authoritative 24-unit continuing education curriculum in 2019. The curriculum empowers physicians to assess the organisational and technical aspects of data protection and security, to understand the technical aspects of interoperability in healthcare, to handle medical