Trial reportBMJ open2018
Effectiveness of traditional lectures and case methods in Swedish general practitioners' continuing medical education about COPD: a cluster randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02213809 (Effect of Case Method Education to General Practitioners on Their Knowledge on COPD and on the Health of Their Patients With COPD), which is not on this map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Case Method Education to General Practitioners on Their Knowledge on COPD and on the Health of Their Patients With COPD
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Educational interventions for health professionals managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Primary care patients with mild or stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease need more support in disease management: a secondary analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trial.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2023Trial
- Patient outcomes following GPs' educations about COPD: a cluster randomized controlled trial.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2020Trial
- What Primary Care Physicians Expect From Continuing Medical Education in Wound Management-A Survey Study.International wound journal · 2026Article
- Diagnostic spirometry in COPD is increasing, a comparison of two Swedish cohorts.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2023Article
- Evaluation of the star family doctors training program: an observational cohort study of a novel continuing medical education program for general practitioners within a compact medical consortium: a quantitative analysis.BMC medical education · 2023Observational
- Spirometry in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Norwegian general practice.BMC family practice · 2020Article
- COPD patients need more information about self-management: a cross-sectional study in Swedish primary care.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo 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).
designA pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial with primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) as units of randomisation. SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND
interventions24 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).
results133 (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.
conclusionsNeither 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.
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