Uptake and Effectiveness of Online Diabetes Continuing Education: The Perspectives of Thai General Practitioner Trainees

Background: Despite continuing medical education (CME) programmes about evidence-based diabetes care, there remains a paucity of evidence-based best practice and actual GP practice. Online CME offers numerous benefits to general practitioners (GPs), particularly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In Thailand, CME is a voluntary process and yet to be established as mandatory. This study aimed to examine GP uptake on the online diabetes CME and its effectiveness on changes in the GPs’ attitudes and knowledge about Type 2 diabetes management. Methods: A cross-sectional study and a before-and-after study were employed with 279 GP trainees who voluntarily undertook the newly developed diabetes programme online. A follow-up survey was conducted 6 months after the GP trainees completed their training. Results: One hundred and twelve out of 279 GP trainees (40.1%) participated, of whom 37 (13.3%) enrolled in the online diabetes programme, and 20 (7.2%) completed the programme. The participants’ mean diabetes knowledge score before enrolling the programme was 61.5%. The participants’ confidence in effective insulin treatment increased significantly after the programme (95% Confident interval [CI], -0.51-0.00; P=0.05) but their knowledge scores before and after the programme were not statistically different (95% CI, -3.93-0.59; P=0.14). Conclusion: There was poor uptake for an online diabetes CME, even though effective recruitment strategies were employed, and while the online educational option is attractive and accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic. This present study emphasises not only the gap between evidence-based practice and actual GP practice but also a need for mandatory CME. Funding Information: This study was financially supported by the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University (Grant no. IN62338). Declaration of Interests: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Khon Kaen University Human Research Ethics Committee: Project number HE621379.