determining cme needs of general physicians in east azarbaijan province

introduction. need assessment is one of the most important steps in planning any educational program. in this cross-sectional study, educational needs of general physicians were questioned in east-azarbaijan. methods. according to different need assessment sources and methods, educational needs and related learning objectives were determined for general physicians of iran. then considering expert opinion and cme standards, 62 cme programs were designed containing these objectives. at third step a written questionnaire containing all 62 programs and their detailed objectives were used to ask general physicians’ needs in the province. the questionnaires were sent to 600 randomly selected physicians and 407 of them were gathered and analyzed by spss software. a criterion for setting the priority of the programs was number of choices made by physicians for each one. analysis was based on choice ratio with 95% confidence interval level. result. five programs were selected more than others including: programs of emergencies and accidents (61.7% + 4.7), internal heart diseases (60.4% + 4.7), internet in medicine (60.0% + 4.8), skin disease (58.5% + 4.8), common emergencies of internal medicine (58.2% + 4.8). they selected thursday and friday as suitable days to attend the programs respectively. the most suitable time of day was reported as before noon. they preferred case study method to other learning methods. conclusion. findings of this study were used for planning cme programs of this province for a period of five years. the similar efforts may be of great value in other provinces.