Search

Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) struck Toronto in the spring of 2003, causing many deaths, serious morbidity, forced quarantine of thousands of individuals, and the closure of all provincial hospitals for several weeks. Given the direction by public health authorities to cancel or postpone all continuing medical education (CME) courses, including those sponsored by the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, SARS has had a profound effect on the delivery of CME in Toronto and beyond. Method: Case study design using existing documents and self-report. Results: The immediate, specific response of the University of Toronto CME program to SARS is described for the period from March 2003 to September 2003. Discussion: During major outbreaks of infectious disease, continuing education providers should maintain regular contact with public health authorities and learners, enact a rational process for postponing or canceling courses, and implement a disaster plan flexible enough to ensure the delivery of education using technological advances.

B. C. Decker, Inc. awards $1,000 each year to the best original research paper published in the Journal of Continuing Education (CME) in the Health Professions. This award is intended to recognize and encourage superior original research and scholarship in the field of continuing education in the health professions. It is a pleasure to award the 2002 Decker Prize to Linda Casebeer and her co-authors, Nancy Bennett, Robert Kristofco, Anna Carillo and Robert Centor, for their study, "Physician Internet Medical Information Seeking and On-line Continuing Education Use Patterns." Casebeer and her co-investigators examined physician medical information-seeking and on-line learning behaviors and their relevance to continuing education providers who design and develop on-line continuing medical education (CME) activities. They posited that Internet CME on-line activities lack consideration of the physician as an information seeker.