WEB based CME Program: Survey Results

by Rosanna Coppo and Goce Spasovski

658 answers were received from the readers of NDT-educational. As expected, the majority of replies to this survey were from Europe (57%) and the Middle East (13%), followed by South American (13%) and Asian (8%) nephrologists.

Answers came from nephrologists of a wide age range, between 35 and 65 years.

The main activity field of the participants was Clinical Nephrology (54%), and Dialysis (32%).

More than a half of the participants was employed in Hospital institutions (51%), followed by Academic Departments as the second most prevalent institution for employment (35%).

The majority of participants liked (57%) the recent ERA-EDTA web based symposia initiative, and fewer (37%) said that they had not followed them even if it was thought to be an excellent initiative.

The promotion of this new initiative was considered sufficient by 73%.

Interestingly, the majority (45%) did not consider this WEB based symposia as a surrogate of Congresses and Meetings, but also a substantial number of participants assumed it may slightly reduce their participation to Medical Congresses and Meetings (42%).

Gaining new knowledge was the most relevant benefit of this type of CME education for more than a half of the participants (51%, n=229), while saving money for traveling and accommodation was consider also a relevant benefit in 39% of participants in this survey.

The majority of participants would be willing to attend this type of educational activity even if the event takes place during week ends (64%).

Around 60% of participants were nephrologists aged 35-55. A favourable attitude towards this new ERA-EDTA initiative was obtained in 94% of the replies, it was also thought to be sufficiently promoted (73 %). Less than a half of the repliers confirmed that this kind of initiative would reduce their participation in Medical Congresses and Meetings (42%). Gaining new knowledge was the most relevant benefit of this type of CME education (51%), even if the event was done during the WE (64%). 
Hence, we might be completely satisfied that the web transferred CME was well received among the middle aged nephrologists. It was assumed as being sufficiently promoted which also achieved its goals in terms of a slight reduction of resources (time and money) for attending the Medical Congresses and meetings, but still as valid alternative in gaining new knowledge as a relevant benefit even if weekends were included.