Goal: To determine whether learners in a 2023 CE initiative increased their use of approved and recommended pharmacotherapies compared to a control group of non-learners for the medical management of obesity
Methods: Med Learning Group (MLG) conducted 34 CE activities in 2023 as part of an educational initiative supported by an independent educational grant from Novo Nordisk. The education focused on diagnosis of obesity and the multidimensional management of patients with obesity who would benefit from evidence-based pharmacotherapies. Learners in each activity completed pre-/post-tests. MLG also provided identifying data on 11,119 learners (primary care physicians, cardiologists and advanced practitioners) to IQVIA, who then compared 11,084 of these learners to non-learners as a matched pair control. Control match criteria included geography, specialty, and prescribing behavior. IQVIA used claims data from pre- and post-education to identify change in the use of guideline recommended and evidence-based therapies for patients among learners compared to control.
Results: Learners achieved a 31% gain in ability to identify patients who would benefit from evidence-based pharmacotherapies on pre-/post-test questions (N=3952). Via the claims analysis, learners also demonstrated increased appropriate application of guideline-recommended therapies in practice, with incremental new prescriptions of recommended therapies increasing significantly among learners compared to the matched control group of non-learners. Learners selected 290,322 new guideline-recommended pharmacologic interventions for obesity in the study period. This is 11,189 more (new) guideline-recommended treatments than the control group (p=0.002).
Conclusion: Learners enhanced their use of guideline-recommended therapies post-education compared to carefully matched controls, demonstrating how CE can positively impact real-world medical practice.
R. Allen: None. L.K. Welch: None.
Novo Nordisk
