For every IME program, learners will all have different learning styles, different knowledge bases, and different schedules.  When I worked for the Springer Nature journals, I used to get asked all the time “What is the best enhanced feature to publish alongside an article?” Or “Which feature will help readers learn the key info?” But in truth, there is no one-size-fits-all.    ...more

In the world of IME (independent medical education), it’s not just about imparting knowledge. It’s also about ensuring that learners can effectively retain and apply that knowledge in their practice. Therefore, it’s crucial to consider the concept of cognitive load and its implications in the design of our IME programs. ...more

Sadly, prejudice and discrimination are still rife in the world today. Some of which regularly make the news and form large parts of political agendas. One form of discrimination is often unacknowledged however, and that is weight stigma. ...more

This year’s annual meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions was held during the February Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, which certainly made for an interesting atmosphere in which to discuss global CME and its future trends. Whilst those outside celebrated by cheering on parade floats and catching beads, those of us inside the venue concentrated instead on grabbing pearls of wisdom from the expert presenters (apologies, I couldn’t resist the theme!). ...more

Clinicians working within the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape are faced with a limitless amount of information to understand, retain and apply in practice. They also have a very limited amount of time available to dedicate to learning. These challenges are important to address in the planning of continuing medical education (CME) activities, which should be designed to help healthcare professionals (HCPs) quickly absorb information and seamlessly integrate it into their clinical practice. ...more

I bet you want me to say something like ‘On-demand webinars – look no further for educational excellence. They are the BEST way for doctors to learn’. But if it was that simple, every educational provider would be doing wall-to-wall webinars, doctors would have all the knowledge they need, and we could go home early. In reality, we know that it’s more complicated than that.  There is no ‘one size fits all’.   ...more

In our rapidly advancing world, medical knowledge is expanding astonishingly, doubling approximately every 73 days according to a recent article. It is no wonder that healthcare professionals (HCPs) trying to stay abreast of the latest clinical breakthroughs can feel overwhelmed. ...more

Very recently, I was lucky enough, along with my colleague James Hutton (Global Operations Lead, IME) to attend the 16th European CME Forum in the Hague, Netherlands. This meeting brought together over 100 stakeholders passionate about global IME/CME, including CME providers, industry supporters, society groups and representatives of accreditation bodies. The theme of this year’s meetings was “Voices in CME-CPD” and the approach was very collaborative, featuring many workshops and breakouts where we got to explore this theme more closely. ...more

Format and content of medical education programmes has been evolving in recent years. One of the most impactful changes has been in the inclusion of patients as expert faculty. ...more

“Coffee and cake. Where is my coffee and cake” – words spoken by my father-in-law Ray in a repetitive cycle during the final months of his life. He died a week ago in a care home, after a few years of declining health with co-existing illnesses; bowel cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. ...more