Introduction: High-quality instruments are required to assess and provide feedback to practicing physicians. Multisource feedback (MSF) uses questionnaires from colleagues, coworkers, and patients to provide data. It enables feedback in areas of increasing interest to the medical profession: communication, collaboration, professionalism, and…

Self-appraisal has repeatedly been shown to be inadequate as a mechanism for performance improvement. This has placed greater emphasis on understanding the processes through which self-perception and external feedback interact to influence professional development. As feedback is inevitably interpreted through the lens of one's self-perceptions it…

Introduction: There is movement of physicians internationally. In some cases, physicians are recruited from low-income countries to wealthier countries like Canada to provide medical services in underresourced communities. This needs assessment examined the clinical medicine learning challenges faced by international medical graduates (IMGs) from…

Introduction: There has been a surge of interest in the area of bias in industry-supported continuing medical education/continuing professional development (CME/CPD) activities. In 2007, we published our first study on measuring bias in CME, demonstrating that our assessment tool was valid and reliable. In light of the increasing interest in this…

Introduction: Physicians undertake many transitions during the course of a medical career. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of physicians who moved to a new community. Methods: A semistructured interview format was used to explore transitional experiences, including reasons for moving; the role of colleagues, learning, and…

Introduction: There is little known about the learning that is undertaken by physicians who graduate from a World Health Organization-listed medical school outside Canada and who migrate to Canada to practice. What do physicians learn and what resources do they access in adapting to practice in Alberta, a province of Canada? Methods: Telephone…

Introduction: The production of online high-quality continuing professional development is a complex process that demands familiarity with effective program and content design. Collaboration and sharing across nations would appear to be a reasonable way to improve quality, increase access, and reduce costs. Methods: In this case report, the…

Multisource or 360-degree feedback on physician performance can improve the quality of health care if carefully designed and implemented. Communication about data use should be clear and the instrument should have appropriate psychometric properties. It is useful for assessment of interpersonal, communication, professionalism, or teamwork…

Introduction: We undertook a meta-analysis of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) outcome literature to examine the effect of moderator variables on physician knowledge, performance, and patient outcomes. Methods: A literature search of MEDLINE and ERIC was conducted for randomized controlled trials and experimental design studies of CME…

Self-regulation in medicine depends on accurate self-assessment. The purpose of the present study was to examine the discrepancy between self and peer assessments for a group of specialist physicians from internal medicine (IM), pediatrics, and psychiatry clinical domains (i.e., patient management, clinical assessment, professional development,…

Interviews with 10 facilitators and 22 members of physician learning groups indicated that the groups functioned as communities of practice; they supported learning, agreed to disagree, and discussed scientific information with the goal of refining practice. Facilitators provided administrative support and sustaining energy. (Contains 18…

A literature review found that (1) innovations must be introduced into the community before physicians adopt them; (2) prerequisites of change include personal commitment, a conceptual base, multiple experiences, and multiple information sources; and (3) interventions to accelerate adoption are more successful if individualized and targeted. (SK)

Continuing medical education providers often develop implementation strategies for clinical practice guidelines and can help facilitate their adoption. Their efforts will be more effective if they reinforce guidelines through local study groups, opinion leaders, clinical recall interviews, audits, and individualized feedback. (SK)

In developing curricula for undergraduate and graduate medical education, educators have become increasingly aware of an interweaving of the formal, informal, and hidden curricula and their influences on the outcomes of teaching and learning. But, to date, there is little in the literature about the hidden curriculum of medical practice, which…

Introduction: Computer-mediated conferencing (CMC) is a computer messaging system that allows users to engage in asynchronous text-based communications that are independent of time and place. It has been suggested that CMC is an effective modality for facilitating constructivist learning environments that enable adult learners to engage in a…