Concordance of Length and Contents of Continuing Medical Education Programs with Educational Demands of Practicing GPs in Khuzestan Province

Introduction: Assessing educational needs and prioritizing them is the first step in planning. Evaluation of current Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs according to the general physicians' points of view is essential for quality improvement and increasing their efficacy and effectiveness. This study aimed to determine the educational priorities of general physicians (GPs) and the degree of concordance of demands with the programs presently offered in Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive study, on the educational needs of general physicians of Khouzestan province, a population of 300 GPs were investigated (2004) by means of questionnaire covering the various diseases and the results were compared with the allocated time to the current presented programs in the same year. Results: The GPs mainly ranked "internal diseases" their highest priority with a mean of 2.05, and the last priority belonged to "infectious diseases" with a mean of 1.75 out of 3. The most time allocated to CME programs for GPs was spared to "pediatric disease" with 36.63% hours and the least to "Ophthalmology" with 0.31% hours. Conclusion: The most time allocated to a great number of the medical issues did not show any concordance with the GPs' educational needs. Therefore, it is suggested that the "needs assessment" procedure be done for more quality improvement in continuing medical education with a higher efficacy and effectiveness.