Continuing Education in the world of New Technologies 

When you go to a specialist, you put yourself in the hands of a person who may determine your life or death, and, of course, wellness, for the rest of your life. We often make sure that our doctors or nurses have their licensure. Some may even look up whether their health care provider has had complaints or are in good standing. We look at the diplomas on their wall and smile if they went to Harvard or other top universities. However, patients seldom consider whether what they learned at Harvard has anything to do with what they are about to do to us! Often, it does not!

For example, an older doctor might have gone to medical school when pacemakers were either in their infancy or didn’t exist at all. In order to remain current, they either go to CE classes, pick up information from reading or from company technicians who often don’t even have a bachelor’s degree. Does the level of continuing education for doctors and nurses rise to the level of nursing school, medical school or post graduate work? Maybe. Unfortunately, we must measure the strength of a chain by its weakest link. The weakest link is continuing medical education programs that, although processed through accreditation agencies, are very light on content and testing, yet heavy on amenities and food. This process puts our health care system, not to mention us at serious risk.

We would like to know that a doctor who recommends a pacemaker or a new drug got his information from an impartial academic source, not a leaflet, a video or a solicitation from the company that manufactures the product. Once again, this is often not the case. Television ads ask patients to ask their doctor if a little blue pill is right for them. Doctors, busy with too many patients, often acquiesce to television commercials, having only read small snippets of recently approved drugs. Manufacturers look at a variety of factors in their marketing programs including, dependency (long term profits) margins (short term products) and lack of competition (higher prices) to decide what to market to doctors, nurses and patients.

Schools must take continuing education more seriously. It is not good enough to go on the Internet, pay a few dollars and fulfill your obligation to your profession. Doctors should thoroughly understand every procedure, device or drug they recommend or carry out. They must know what happens in the event of a malfunction rather than relying on a company to send a person who never even went to a four year undergraduate program to “fix” an instrument that has been surgically implanted. We are all entitled not only to health care, but to providers who understand the new technologies and procedures as well as those they learned in school.  
Continuing Education has a long way to long way to go.