Continuing medical education challenges in chronic fatigue syndrome.
BACKGROUND
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) affects at least 4 million people in the United States, yet only 16% of people with CFS have received a diagnosis or medical care for their illness. Educating health care professionals about the diagnosis and management of CFS may help to reduce population morbidity associated with CFS.


METHODS
This report presents findings over a 5-year period from May 2000 to June 2006 during which we developed and implemented a health care professional educational program. The objective of the program was to distribute CFS continuing education materials to providers at professional conferences, offer online continuing education credits in different formats (e.g., print, video, and online), and evaluate the number of accreditation certificates awarded.


RESULTS
We found that smaller conference size (OR = 80.17; 95% CI 8.80, 730.25), CFS illness related target audiences (OR = 36.0; 95% CI 2.94, 436.34), and conferences in which CFS research was highlighted (OR = 4.15; 95% CI 1.16, 14.83) significantly contributed to higher dissemination levels, as measured by visit rates to the education booth. While print and online courses were equally requested for continuing education credit opportunities, the online course resulted in 84% of the overall award certificates, compared to 14% for the print course. This remained consistent across all provider occupations: physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and allied health professionals.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that educational programs promoting materials at conferences may increase dissemination efforts by targeting audiences, examining conference characteristics, and promoting online continuing education forums.
Brimmer
Dana J
DJ
Chronic Viral Diseases Branch, Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. dyv4@cdc.gov
McCleary
K Kimberly
KK
Lupton
Teresa A
TA
Faryna
Katherine M
KM
Reeves
William C
WC
D002983:Clinical Competence; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000458:organization & administration; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011336:Probability; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States