Delivering an activity online and through social media
Delivering continuing medical education online changes what an activity can measure and lets its participants discuss and pass it on. A large share of accredited education had moved online by 2010, for reasons of format, cost and access, and by 2023 social media was being presented as a delivery route with formats, keys to success and risks of its own.
How much of the field moved online, and why
Online activities made up 40% of all CME taken by clinicians in 2010, according to the accreditation council's annual report for that year, and in 2011 one directory of approved online CME listed more than 325 sites offering over 13,500 separate activities and more than 26,000 hours of credit. One reason for the growth was technology that allows interactive formats such as virtual patient cases, simulations and games, which have been shown to improve clinician practice behaviour and patient outcomes. Online CME also needs none of the travel and lodging a live activity does, and it is archived, so it stays available whenever the learner has time, which makes it affordable and accessible.
By 2012 digital media were becoming much more commonplace in medical education, and healthcare professionals, younger physicians in particular, were increasingly turning to the internet to keep up with treatment advances and guideline changes, so the internet was becoming an important way of connecting with and engaging them. Oncologists, like most healthcare professionals, had substantial limits on their time and on financial support for attending congresses, and could no longer attend every congress or read every important journal. In response, congress symposia were increasingly broadcast as webcasts or podcasts, and online services sprang up that summarised recent research in a digestible format. The trend was strengthened by the spread of smartphones and tablets in the medical setting, through which physicians received updates by RSS, browsed journals through applications and reached online textbooks and other resources at the bedside.
What digital delivery changes for an activity
The first advantage of digital delivery, beyond convenient access, is that it is straightforward to collect information about the participants, such as their experience, their awareness of particular topics and their opinions on controversial ones, which gives the educator information about educational need and lets them map whether opinion changed as a result. Monitoring online activity after an event can indicate the programme's "stickiness", tracking how the messages were received and how they shape opinion over the longer run.
The second advantage is a forum in which participants can discuss the topic during or after the event, and the means to forward the link to colleagues or post it on social media platforms. For example, the oncology section of Medscape, one of the most popular online resources for medical information, offered accredited modules on oncology topics and let a user email a link to a colleague or share it on Facebook and Twitter. Because physicians prefer to learn from peers, many healthcare sites were offering social networking, discussion forums, blogs and other interactive features, so in many cases medical education became not only a matter of delivering faculty-led content but also of providing online forums in which physicians share opinions, post case studies and debate controversial issues.
Social media as a delivery route
At a 2023 conference, two presenters gave an overview of how medical communicators can use social media (SoMe) for CME, holding that health care professionals can now use it for training, timely CME and ongoing professional development. The advantages they gave for engaging busy physicians are on-demand availability around a clinician's schedule; open, unrestricted discussion in which participants can ask questions, challenge concepts and share perspectives; content validated under the same guidelines as other CME, with academic and practising clinicians involved in development and delivery; standards set by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to keep it compliant; peer-to-peer networking across specialties, institutions and places; spaced learning and measurement over time; and low cost.
The format of SoMe CME depends on the communicator's objective, the audience and the content: live or taped-to-live webinars (YouTube, Facebook Live, Instagram, X/Twitter); online communities and discussion forums (Facebook, SERMO, Doximity); blogs and, with video, vlogs (WordPress, Blogger, LinkedIn Pulse, YouTube); journal clubs that meet regularly to evaluate the literature (X/Twitter, Facebook groups, Slack); and tweetorials, threaded tweets giving a concise overview of a topic with pretest and posttest questions.
Developing social-media education and managing its risks
Each platform has its own capabilities, benefits and downsides, so hosted SoMe CME can be a bit overwhelming to develop. Some keys to success are to think differently and be open to change, know the audience, focus on educational value and understand that social media is dynamic, and most important of all to stay active and expect the unexpected. The presenters' planning-to-execution tips are to consider the platform's dynamics and limits, such as character limits and the use of emojis, images, hashtags and polling questions, gather supporting references, validate the content with other professionals and test it before posting.
SoMe CME is constantly evolving, and although it offers health care professionals unique opportunities to enhance learning, connect and collaborate, it poses challenges and requires more robust risk management than traditional CME. Health care professionals need to evaluate content critically for accuracy, protect patient information, adhere to ethical guidelines and be mindful of potential bias. The presenters closed by holding that health care professionals and communicators can embrace SoMe CME as a valuable addition to continuous learning, working together to shape the future of medical education and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.