The Impact of an Online, Episodic CME Strategy on Improving Physicians’ Knowledge and Competence in the Care of Persons Living With HIV

Abstract

Background. Despite the availability of effective treatment, nearly 7000 people in the United States die of HIV/AIDS every year. Gaps exist at every step of the care con-tinuum,[3-5] and persons with an unsuppressed viral load have poor health outcomes and are more likely to transmit HIV to others. Recognizing and addressing the challenges that persons living with HIV (PLWH) face because of culture, gender, age, or life circumstance is key for HIV care providers seeking to deliver patient-centered care. Methods. To address identified gaps, an online CME/CE/CPE educational initiative was developed. Comprising a series of 8 TV-like video commentaries featuring an HIV expert interviewed by a medical journalist, each episode addresses HIV care in the context of gaps in the care continuum (Episode 1); aging (Episode 2), HIV among adolescents (Episode 3), unique challenges among women (Episode 4), HIV primary care (Episode 5), substance abuse (Episode 6), and ethnicity (Episodes 7, 8). Episodes launched online between June 2016 and December 2016. Educational effectiveness was assessed using repeated question pairs in a pre-/post-study design that compared learners' responses to questions immediately before and After exposure to educational content. A chi-square test of independence determined if changes between pre-and post-assessment scores were statistically significant. Results. As of April 28, 2017, a total of nearly 96,000 learners had participated across the 8 episodes; participation for each episode ranged from 7000 to more than 15,000. This initial analysis compared pre-and post-assessment scores from the subset of infectious disease (ID)/HIV physicians who answered questions during the first 2 months post-launch, and identified several areas of improvement (Figure). Conclusion. Participation in this innovative online CME/CE/CPE initiative led to significant (P