Objective: We sought to determine if interactive, case-based, online continuing medical education (CME) could improve the competence and confidence of primary care physicians (PCPs) and diabetologists/endocrinologists (D/Es).
Methods: Educational design included a “test, then teach” approach to elicit cognitive dissonance, with evidence-based feedback provided following each learner response. A repeated pairs pre-/post-assessment study design and a McNemar’s test (P <.05 is considered significant) assessed educational effect, with Cohen’s d assessing impact (<0.2 modest effect, 0.2-0.49 small effect, 0.5-0.79 moderate effect and >0.8 extensive effect). The activity launched September 28, 2023, data were collected through November 7, 2023.
Results: In total, 300 PCPs and 51 D/Es were included in the analysis. Matched learner data indicate that overall, 77% of PCPs and 82% of D/Es improved their competence from pre-to-post (both P<.001 with extensive overall impacts in both groups 1.32-1.67). On a question-level: 20% of PCPs (P<.01) improved at recognizing effective strategies for patient education related to T2D technology, and 65% of PCPs (P<.01) and 82% of D/Es (P<.01) improved at identifying TIR goals for a given patient with T2D. Overall, 46% of PCPs and 35% of D/Es reported increased confidence in initiating CGM devices in patients with T2D.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates the success of interactive, case-based, online CME on improving competence and confidence of PCPs and D/Es related to using CGM to manage T2D. Additionally, baseline competence levels were higher among D/Es related to identification patients for whom to recommend CGM (baseline gap 29% for PCPs and 6% for D/Es), and recognizing effective patient education strategies when initiating CGM (baseline gap 36% for PCPs and 16% for D/Es), resulting in larger improvements among PCPs. Baseline gaps were similar among both groups related to TIR goals, resulting in larger improvement and clinical understanding in D/Es.
A. Larkin: None. J. Schrand: None. A. Le: None.
Developed through an independent educational grant from Dexcom.
