Stanford University - SKOLAR MD

Stanford SKOLAR MD has received 3,050 applications for Continuing Medical Education (CME) from 845 applicants and has awarded a total of 1,534 CME hours.

Situation

There are approximately 650,000 practicing physicians in the United States. Ongoing Continuing Medical Education (CME) is required for physician licensure in the United States. The purpose of continuing education is to ensure that physicians are thoroughly up to date on the latest medical knowledge. An average of 25 hours per year of continuing education is required in most states. Today it is believed that the "half-life" of medical knowledge is about ten years, meaning that within ten years of completing post-graduate work, a doctor's medical practice knowledge is 50% outdated. Traditional, didactic Continuing Medical Education (CME) has not been shown to affect change in practice behavior.

A recent survey at Stanford University determined that on average physicians were posed with four to eight questions per day that went unanswered due to 1.) A lack of time to research the questions, 2.) not having the right information at their fingertips, and 3.) poor organization and indexing of the information they did have. Another study at the University of Iowa College of Medicine published in the August 7, 1999 British Medical Journal estimated that family physicians have 3.2 questions for every ten patient visits. These questions often go unanswered because of the lack of readily available knowledge resources.

Solution

To take advantage of the huge advances in computer processing power and speed to allow doctors to take a self-directed approach to problem solving and learning, Stanford University developed an on-line searchable database that gives physicians rapid access to well-organized, up-to-date information from an integrated set of peer-reviewed medical sources. Stanford SKOLAR MD is a medical knowledge base that provides physicians with integrated knowledge from textbooks, drug databases, practice guidelines, MEDLINE, and journal articles. Physicians using the system can obtain Continuing Medical Education credit for the time spent researching questions arising from real patient cases. In February 2001, the American Medical Association approved Stanford SKOLAR MD as the first participant in a new pilot program evaluating physician-initiated and physician self-directed Internet-based Continuing Medical Education. Dr. Dennis Wentz, Director, Continuing Professional Development, American Medical Association believes that "the Internet is an increasingly important source of information for physicians."

Better Health & Lower Costs

Stanford SKOLAR MD has received 3,050 applications for Continuing Medical Education from 845 applicants and has awarded a total of 1,534 Continuing Medical Education hours. On 93% of the applications, the applicant found the answer to his or her medical question. On 94% of the applications, the applicant would apply his or her answer clinically. Since many medical errors stem from knowledge gaps and incomplete drug information, and since physicians are able to answer most of their questions with SKOLAR, widespread adoption of SKOLAR would lead to a significant reduction in medical errors.