title: An assessment of the quality and usefulness of the EuroTransMed satellite programmes in continuing medical education.
abstract: The quality and usefulness of the EuroTransMed (ETM) international satellite medical educational programmes were assessed. Medical educational sessions are broadcast once a week from London in English to over 140 sites in Europe. The aim is to provide an update of medical information to physicians as a part of their continuing medical education (CME). A questionnaire was distributed to two groups of postgraduate medical trainees, internists and family doctors. The groups viewed two video-recordings of the satellite broadcasts, translated into Polish. The first programme was watched by 219 doctors and the second by 265. There was a 96% response rate to the questionnaires. Results suggest that the ETM satellite programmes are both relevant and of good quality, but are of limited usefulness to the target audience. These limitations result mainly from a shortage of time available for such a form of education, as well as from difficulty understanding the English broadcasts, because of a lack of fluency among general practitioners in Poland.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Medical Centre of Postgraduate Education, Warsaw, Poland. wegrzynz@cmkp.edu.pl
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Wasyluk
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wegrzyn
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mienkowska
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Orton
mesh_terms: D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D017215:Satellite Communications