Effectiveness of traditional lectures and case methods in Swedish general practitioners’ continuing medical education about COPD: a cluster randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVES: To study the effects of continuing medical education (CME) about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for general practitioners (GPs) by comparing two commonly used CME methods with each other and no CME (reference group). DESIGN: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial with primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) as units of randomisation. SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: 24 PHCCs in Stockholm County, Sweden, were randomised into two CME intervention arms: case method learning (CM) (n=12) and traditional lectures (TL) (n=12). A reference group without CME (n=11) was recruited separately. GPs (n=255) participated in the study arm to which their PHCC was allocated: CM, n=87; TL, n=93; and reference, n=75. Two 2-hour CME seminars were given in a period of 3 months. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in scores between baseline and 12 months on a 13-item questionnaire about evidence-based COPD management (0–2 points/question, maximum total score 26 points). RESULTS: 133 (52%) GPs completed the questionnaire both at baseline and 12 months. Both CM and TL resulted in small yet significantly higher total scores at 12 months than at baseline (CM, 10.34 vs 11.44; TL, 10.21 vs 10.91; p<0.05); there were few significant differences between these CME methods. At both baseline and 12 months, all three groups’ scores were generally high on questions about smoking cessation support and low on those that measured spirometry interpretation skills, interprofessional care and management of multimorbidity. CONCLUSIONS: Neither short CM nor short TL CME sessions substantially improve GPs’ skills in managing COPD. It is justified to challenge the use of these common CME methods as a strategy for improving GPs’ level of knowledge about management of COPD and other complex chronic diseases characterised by multimorbidity. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02213809; Results.