Awareness Assessment on Continuing Medical Education in Korean Orthopaedic Society / 대한정형외과학회잡지

PURPOSE: Awareness on continuing medical education (CME) of the Korean Orthopaedic Association (KOA) was investigated in order to augment the weak educational points of the conventional academic CME. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The web-survey was conducted in the KOA on the awareness of conventional academic or web-based CME. The questionnaire included working conditions, intimacy of informational technology, and strengths and weaknesses of academic and web-based CME. RESULTS: Among 3,427 emails sent, 168 (4.9% of effective response rate) responses were received. Of the responders, 74.4% of the responders could not attend CME frequently because of working time (35.7%) and a distance far from the working place (13.2%). The merits of academic CME included as the opportunity for considerations of other members' thoughts on some clinical matters (64.3%); however, the weak points were holding several similar conferences (60.1%) and too short time for adequate study (53.0%). They wanted that surgical procedures and tips (49.0%) to be provided in the form of lecture slides (44.6%) or movie clips (37.6%) in web-based CME. 95.5% of the responders showed positive response regarding the need for web-based CME. CONCLUSION: Results of the survey showed high needs and interests in web-based CME, which could support the weaknesses of the academic CME with less time for education and limited accessibility to CME due to time or space barriers due to their working conditions.

Global Networking of Cancer and NCD Professionals Using Internet Technologies: The Supercourse and mHealth Applications / 예방의학회지

Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world. Education is at the core of cancer prevention activities, especially programs targeting empowering existing public health workforce. In the past 10 years, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have been building the Global Health Network Supercourse project, a library of over 4500 online lectures and a network of nearly 50000 public health professionals in 174 countries. As of November, 2010, the overall number of Supercourse participants from Asia exceeds 7000 participants. The Supercourse network has been investigating methods for Internet based recruitment of cancer prevention professionals in order to network cancer experts locally and globally, including the use of mHealth technologies for cancer research education and for NCD registries. Supercourse is a tool that can offer a solution to the challenges of information sharing, especially in the field of NCDs and cancer. In this paper, we highlight the need for the development of Cancer Supercourse with Satellite in Asia and encourage faculty members from Asia to join the network.