Top 20 websites for continuing medical education courses

A handy shortlist of the top websites for continuing medical education (CME) courses. 

Medical education is a life-long learning process. Continuing medical education (CME) refers to educational activities aimed towards developing knowledge and skillsets among medical- and allied health professionals. Indeed, it is vital for medical professionals to keep up with changing practices and new advances in medical science. For this reason, most professional medical bodies deem it mandatory to have a minimum number of ‘CME credits’ for the maintenance of licensure for medical practice. CME credits are provided by accredited CME providers who have approval from the authorized councils (for example, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education [ACCME] regulates CME providers in the US). CME programs are provided by academic activities like seminars and conferences, as well as by online courses.

Advantages of online CME programs:

CME programs have been traditionally delivered by face-to-face meetings, discussions, lectures, and workshops. Compared to offline CME programs, online CME programs offer some advantages:

• (1) the programs can be attended on-demand at the professional’s convenience, thus increasing the accessibility,
• (2) the course content can be searchable and can be re-visited,
• (3) the course contents can be easily updated continually,
• (4) online courses are typically self-directed, thus promoting active learning,
• (5) online courses provide a variety of multi-media contents easy to access and use.

How effective are online CME programs?

The effectiveness of online CME may vary from field to field. Several published interventional clinical studies have assessed the effectiveness of CME programs on (1) changing the practice of health professionals, and (2) their impact on patient health outcomes. A Cochrane systematic review¹ that evaluated 215 studies that included more than 28000 professionals concluded that medical education programs (as compared to no intervention) had a favorable impact on professional practice as well as patient health outcomes, although the effect sizes were small. Another systematic review showed that online CME methods are at least as effective as traditional methods in improving practitioners’ knowledge².

How to find a CME that is suitable for you?

If you are in need of attending CME programs (either for your own academic professional interests or as part of licensure requirements), you should first find CME providers that are approved by your licensure professional body. This depends on where you are located and which professional body provides your medical license. For example, in the US, the ACCME maintains a web resource to find an appropriate CME provider [accessible from https://www.accme.org/find-cme-provider].

Since we anticipate a wide readership for this blog article from professionals from countries all over the world, we present to you some online CME platforms based on the quality of their content alone, without regard to their licensure affiliations. This list will hopefully help medical professionals to seek an appropriate source for up-gradation of the skills they need in their medical practice or research. The list below is not in any favored order.

Our list of online CME providers:

Shorlist of CME providers:

1. Mayo Clinic Online CME
2. GIBLIB
3. American College of Physicians
4. Cleveland Clinic Center for Continuing Education
5. Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education
6. Omnicuris
7. Medscape
8. Coursera CME courses
9. Edx CME courses
10. Uptodate by Wolters Kluwer
11. Intiva Health
12. MYCME and associates
13. NEJM
14. BMJ education and BMJ learning
15. STATPEARLS
16. MASTER CLINICIANS
17. Evidence based medicine
18. NPTEL (mandatory for medical teaching faculty in India)
19. MER primary care
20. RELIAS media
21. MomMD
22. Harvard Medical School

The role of CME writers in medical education

CME writers play an important role in creating well-researched, authoritative content for continuing medical education courses. Content plays a crucial role in the medical education industry: the cost of an error is too high. It is essential to source content from domain experts such as PhD-qualified medical researchers, cardiologists, public health consultants, and more.  Sourcing content for CME courses typically requires the experience of a medical researcher or physician and the writing skills of a medical writer or science communicator. While earlier, it was hard to find a mix of these two skills in one person, it is now easier to access scientific experts who can provide writing services. Kolabtree provides access to a global pool of experts across medical subject areas who can help you craft content for CME courses, including scripts for videos and storyboards. View experts now>> 

References:

• Forsetlund L, O’Brien MA, Forsén L, Mwai L, Reinar LM, Okwen MP, Horsley T, Rose CJ. Continuing education meetings and workshops: effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD003030. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003030.pub3.
• Cook DA, Levinson AJ, Garside S, Dupras DM, Erwin PJ, Montori VM. Internet-Based Learning in the Health Professions: A Meta-analysis. 2008;300(10):1181–1196. doi:10.1001/jama.300.10.1181