Knowledge of physicians regarding the management of Type two Diabetes in a primary care setting: the impact of online continuous medical education

BACKGROUND: To explore the impact of an online continuing medical education (CME) program on physicians’ knowledge about the management of type two diabetes. METHODS: An online CME program was designed and uploaded in the CME platform, Department of Education, Ministry of health, Iran. A 28-item questionnaire was used for the assessment. In the beginning, a case scenario was introduced. Then, participants were asked to follow and answer to a pretest assessment. Details of the educational content were provided afterward. Finally, the participants took part in the same post-test exam 4 weeks later. The Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test was used to compare the measurements. In addition, the Mann-Whitney test was applied to compare knowledge indices between the general practitioners (GPs) and internists. RESULTS: Five hundred twenty-six primary care physicians participated in this study. There was a significant positive effect regarding diagnosis confirmation (10.3% difference, P = 0.0001). Moreover, a smaller effect was observed in relation to the importance of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) at diagnosis (5.2% difference, P = 0.0006). The effect was positive in relation to the self-reported HbA1c testing frequency: more than 90% of the participants answered correctly in the post-test exam (7.6% difference, P = 0.0001). Considering improved knowledge in the treatment of diabetes, there was a very significant difference in response to questions targeting advice on a healthy diet, and physical activity; 27.7% (P = 0.000), and 18.7% (P = 0.000), respectively. In addition, the program had a positive impact on various aspects of treatment with oral glucose-lowering drugs (OGLDs). Moreover, the intervention difference was 25, and 34.4% for the questions targeting the appropriate type of insulin, and insulin initiation regimen after OGLD failure. Subgroup analyses revealed that the intervention increased the rate of correct responses among the GPs in various domains of knowledge in diagnosis and treatment. The initial differences between the GPs and internists no longer remained significant after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of Iranian primary health care professionals in diabetes management has significant shortcomings. This is concerning because they are at the front line of patient care. We demonstrate the effectiveness of online CME on improving GPs knowledge in the management of type 2 diabetes.