Assessment of the acceptability and costs of interactive videoconferencing for continuing medical education in Nova Scotia

We carried out continuing medical education (CME) using interactive viderconferencing to four communities in Nova Scotia, two rural and two urban, using room-based and PC Picture Tel technology. Programming was decided upon by the target audience, developed by members of the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University, and delivered from a broadcast studio at the University to physicians at their community hospitals. Faculty were provided support for their introduction to this medium in the form of a 1-hour training session. Each community received approximately 12 hours of CME. Participating physicians and faculty were enthusiastic in their responses to their involvement in CME programming. Program content was highly evaluated by almost all participants, and 72% felt that the format was as effective as face-to-face CME. Difficulties included those related to the technological aspects of programming, with participants agreeing only 65% of the time and faculty agreeing 70% of the time that the picture quality was satisfactory. Faculty were more critical of sound quality, with only 70% agreeing that this was satisfactory, while 90% of participants felt that it was satisfactory. Since PC-based units were able to operate with only two Centrix lines at 112 kilobits per second, and since these sites operated simultaneously with others, limiting bandwidth for all participants, these difficulties are amenable to technological improvement. Focus group analysis found that removal of barriers to attendance at traditional CME, particularly lost time from practice and family and distance to travel, was valued. This was most marked for rural physicians.