Self-directed continuing medical education at the point-of-care: implications for cost and value.

PURPOSE: There is a growing interest in the use of point-of-care clinical decision support resources as a form of continuing medical education (CME). This paper models various cost and value outcomes that might emerge from the use of a clinical decision support tool (BMJ Best Practice) as CME.

METHODS: BMJ Best Practice is the clinical decision support tool of the BMJ. Healthcare professionals can use it to do self-directed CME. We modeled the use of clinical decision support as a component of CME and evaluated the potential impact of this use on costs.

RESULTS: High users of self-directed CME at the point-of-care can reduce the cost of their CME. This is mainly by saving on the costs of external CME meetings.

CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare professionals should consider using a blend of self-directed CME and face-to-face education to ensure that their CME activities offer maximum value for a given cost.