Summary
Questionnaires were sent to 203 active members of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA) registered for the annual meeting in 1994. The questionnaire was designed to determine whether attendance at the academic meeting changed the practice patterns of attending Orthopaedic surgeons and to determine factors that correlated with a change. A response rate of 89.2% was achieved and 63.5% reported a change in their practice as a result of the meeting. General orthopaedists were more likely to change their practice pattern (43/59, 72.9%) than orthopaedists with subspecialty practices (69/119, 58%), p=0.07. Sixty-five (71.4%) of community surgeons changed their practice versus 50 (55.6%) university affiliated surgeons. Attendance at structured meeting events by hours/day correlated positively with effecting a change in practice (p=0.009). The most frequent aspects of clinical practice to change were surgical technique (79.1%) and preoperative decision-making (74.8%). Use of a new implant was least likely to change (39.1%). The most influential facets of the meeting were the symposia and the instructional courses which were reported as extremely or very important by 67.8% and 65.2%, respectively. Technical exhibits had the least effect with only 17.4% of surgeons reporting this as important. The most common reason given by surgeons who did not change their clinical practice was that nothing new was presented (40.9%) or the surgeon preferred to have the results confirmed by other centres (33.3%). Only 4.5% said they would not change because they were uncomfortable performing new techniques. Attendance at the meeting was motivated primarily by interaction with colleagues (71.8%) and the desire to obtain new knowledge (66.3%). Only 10.5% reported obtaining CME credits as being an important reason for attending the meeting. This survey suggests that attendance at an academic meeting does induce a change in clinical practice patterns of orthopaedic surgeons and clarifies factors associated with a change.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Savatsky PD, Haitz MC, Sterns NS. Patterns of continuing medical education: A generation unit analysis of physicians in three community hospitals. Soc Sci Med 1981;15A: 665–672.
Mulholland H. Continuing medical education — is there a crisis? Postgraduate Education for General Practice 1990;1:69–72.
Davis DA, Thomson MA, Oxman AD, Haynes B. Evidence for the Effectiveness of CME: A Review of 50 Randomized Controlled Trials. Medical Education 1992;268:1111–1117.
Parboosingh J, Lockyer J, McDougall G, Chugh U. How Physicians Make Changes in Their Clinical Practice: A Study of Physicians’ Perception of Factors That Facilitate This Process. Ann RCPSC 1984;17:429–435.
Sinclair DG. Continuing Medical Education: Eight Research Reports. Journal of Medical Education 1981;56:103–110.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hutchison, C.R., McKee, M.D., Yoo, D. (1997). Attendance at an Academic Meeting: Does It Change Clinical Practice. In: Scherpbier, A.J.J.A., van der Vleuten, C.P.M., Rethans, J.J., van der Steeg, A.F.W. (eds) Advances in Medical Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4886-3_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4886-3_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6048-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4886-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive