title: Using a quasi-experimental research design to assess knowledge in continuing medical education programs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The objectives of continuing medical education (CME) programs include knowledge acquisition, skill development, clinical reasoning and decision making, and health care outcomes. We conducted a year-long medical education research study in which knowledge acquisition in our CME programs was assessed.
  
  
  METHODS
  A randomized separate-sample pretest/past-test design, a quasi-experimental technique, was used. Nine CME programs with a sufficient number of participants were identified a priori. Knowledge acquisition was compared between the control group and the intervention group for the nine individual programs and for the combined programs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 667 physicians, nurses, and other health professionals participated. Significant gain in knowledge was found for six programs: Perinatology, Pain Management, Fertility Care 2, Pediatrics, Colorectal Diseases, and Alzheimer's Disease (each p < .001). Also, the intervention group differed from the control group when the nine programs were combined (p < .001), with an effect size of .84.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of sound quasi-experimental research methodology (separate-sample pretest/post-test design), the inclusion of a representative sample of CME programs, and the analysis of nearly 700 subjects led us to have confidence in concluding that our CME participants acquired a meaningful amount of new knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Education, Criss III Room 475, Creighton University School of Medicine, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Markert
authors.forename: Sally C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Subhash C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Bhatia
mesh_terms: D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D012107:Research Design