Supporting continuing professional development

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

Herbert Spencer

Continuing professional development (CPD), also known as continuing medical education, has been around since the earliest days of institutionalized medical instruction. After graduation from medical schools, physicians continued to learn by meeting with their peers. Hospital-based grand rounds, case discussions, and meetings to discuss published medical papers made up the bulk of the continuing learning experience in those early days and continue to play a part.

From the 1950s through to the 1990s, CPD was increasingly funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Concerns regarding informational bias led to increasing scrutiny of the CPD funding sources. This led to the establishment of certifying bodies such as the Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education.¹

In Canada, certification is provided by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada. The College of Family Physicians of Canada requires 250 credit hours over a 5-year cycle for Certification. At least 25 credits must be obtained for each year of the cycle to earn and maintain Fellowship within the College; an additional 25 credit hours of higher-level learning are also required over each learning cycle. Almost all (currently 8) provinces require documentation of ongoing CPD for licensure.²

Not all of our readers know that Canadian Family Physician (CFP) is an accredited provider of Mainpro^® (Maintenance of Proficiency). College members can earn Mainpro-M1 credits by performing reflective exercises after reading eligible articles in the journal.

Recently, CFP has upgraded and simplified the Mainpro process for readers. Here is how it works. Each issue of CFP includes 3 articles that are designated as Mainpro-M1 eligible. First, in the print or digital (www.cfp.ca/site/misc/ecfp.xhtml) versions of CFP, look for the Mainpro-eligible symbol in the table of contents. Second, read the articles for which you wish to register for Mainpro-M1 credits. Third, go to www.cfpc.ca and log in to the Members Area.³ Click on CFP Mainpro (bottom right-hand corner), which takes you to the “My CFP Mainpro Articles” page. Fourth, click on an article title. Read the article online or click on Claim Credit to be directed to the reflective exercise.

Fifth, write a 50- to 100-word response to 1 of the following 3 questions:

• Describe in 50 to 100 words how the information in this article will change the way you diagnose, assess and/or treat patients;

• Describe in 50 to 100 words why you feel the information in this article will not change the way you diagnose, assess and/or treat patients, citing specific reasons (eg, it confirms your current practice); and

• Describe in 50 to 100 words what further information or continuing education you will seek in light of the information in this article.

When you are done, click Submit. Credits are automatically recorded and submitted to the College.

Up to now, all Mainpro-eligible articles in CFP have been worth 0.25 M1 credits, but as of the March issue, credits will be based on the length and complexity of the designated article. Regular and highly popular features that provide readers with a clear clinical bottom line (eg, Motherisk, Child Health Update, and Tools for Practice) will continue to be worth 0.25 M1 credits.^4,5 Longer and more complex articles (eg, RxFiles, systematic reviews of the literature, and research articles) will be worth 0.5 M1 credits. The longest and most complex articles (eg, clinical review articles) might be worth 1.0 M1 credits.⁶

Currently, only between 400 and 500 of the more than 28 000 members who read CFP submit Mainpro-M1 credits to the College each month that are based on CFP-published articles. We think that more readers should be taking advantage of the journal’s easy-to-access Mainpro-eligible content.

The CFP Mainpro-designated articles, which are high quality, convenient, and now worth more credits than ever, help support the CPD of our readers.

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