Abstract
Introduction. Widespread use of antibiotics has led to drug-resistant bacteria and reports of drug-resistant infections. A continuing medical education (CME) campaign was used to improve antibiotic use among primary care providers. Methods. The Office of CME and Professional Development at the University of Colorado School of Medicine produces a semiannual, week-long course for primary care providers. A 2-year multifaceted CME campaign consisted of course content on antibiotic use, a practice audit, and two surveys to measure perceptions of the problem of antibiotic overuse, potential barriers to achieving appropriate use, and strategies to overcome barriers. Results. The overall response rate in the 2nd part of the campaign was 68.4%. Sixty-six percent of respondents had implemented at least one strategy to reduce antibiotic overuse. The rate was significantly higher among those who had attended previous reviews (81.0%) compared with those who had attended neither (54%, p=0.0002). However, there was no “dose effect” on the rate of implementing a new strategy. Conclusions. Overuse of antibiotic therapy has important public health implications. Results suggest that mixed interactive and didactic CME program was effective in increasing awareness of antibiotic overuse and strategies for reducing antibiotic administration.
Highlights
Widespread use of antibiotics has led to drug-resistant bacteria and reports of drug-resistant infections
continuing medical education (CME) providers are required to comply with accreditation criteria from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to (1) “integrate CME into the process for improving professional practice”; (2) “identify factors outside the provider’s control that impact outcomes”; (3) and “implement educational strategies to remove, overcome, or address barriers to physician change” [1], most CME activities are not designed to change behaviors in practice but focus on knowledge that reinforces quality of a physician’s practice [2,3,4]
Learners identified multiple pressures to prescribe antibiotics. In this second part of the interactive campaign to educate clinicians regarding appropriate indications for antibiotic use, we report the results of CME course survey that determined if participants had made changes in practice based on attendance of the course
Summary
Widespread use of antibiotics has led to drug-resistant bacteria and reports of drug-resistant infections. A continuing medical education (CME) campaign was used to improve antibiotic use among primary care providers. Results suggest that mixed interactive and didactic CME program was effective in increasing awareness of antibiotic overuse and strategies for reducing antibiotic administration. Drug-resistant bacteria are emerging because of the widespread use of antibiotics both inside and outside medicine [5,6,7], antibiotic overuse in the United States is an important area of practice needing improvement. There are increasing reports of drug-resistant infections and calls for judicious use of antibiotics in healthcare to slow the emergence of resistant organisms and to extend the use of current antibiotics [11].
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