January 1, 1999

By John Toews, M.D.
Peter Matthews, M.B., B.S

Canadian psychiatry appears poised for a boom in Continuing Medical Education (CME).

Over the last eight years the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA) has played a leadership role in promoting and providing CME for psychiatrists in Canada. This emphasis started in 1990, when the CPA asked to be a participant in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) Maintenance of Competence Program (MOCOMP). This program assigns credit to group programs or conferences based on the educational value ratings of the program and provides an opportunity to record the physicians' learning based on questions that arise from clinical practice. Participants then receive reports of their work.

The CPA used the advent of MOCOMP to review its own CME offerings and to raise the priority of CME within the association. Its recent annual meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was planned to fill both an educational and scientific agenda. The first day of the four-day meeting was designed to be a conjoint meeting between the CPA and the psychiatric subspecialty academies. General psychiatrists were invited to review areas of subspecialty psychiatry.

The meeting incorporated innovative approaches to education. A seminar on geriatric psychopharmacology was presented as a television game show, which pitted teams of psychiatrists competing for the correct answers to questions. Other sessions included a moot court and interactive audience response systems. For many years the CPA has included a self-assessment test that provides answers for group discussion at the end of the session. Industry presents satellite symposia that are continuing to improve in quality.

In an attempt to provide CME closer to home, the CPA has been working to develop educational programs to present throughout the country. For example, an educational program that combined speakers, video clips of patient demonstrations, case discussions, audience response systems, and small-group discussions in the field of schizophrenia was highly rated. Other programs are being developed. Funding has been provided by government and industry.

The educational value of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and the Bulletin of the Canadian Psychiatric Association was improved. The journal retains its academic, research base but commissions review articles on topics of major interest. The bulletin has a more clinical focus. It also receives articles for peer review.

The only recognized system for CME credit in Canada for psychiatrists is MOCOMP. The CPA is partnering with the RCPSC to determine both credits and types of learning experiences for psychiatry in its new Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program that will replace MOCOMP in 2001. There will be many different ways for psychiatrists to earn credits, including participating in CME meetings, self-learning projects, and practice audits; reading; and teaching. The CPD program will again spur the CPA to further development in CME. The Canadian CME organizations are working with Americans to determine whether CME credit can be made reciprocal.

The CPA has been pleased with its development of an international meeting offering CME. The theme of the fourth international conference is "Managing Self-Damaging Behavior." It will be held in Puerto Vallarta March 15 to 19. Psychotherapy skills will be emphasized, and there will be some focus placed on hypnosis as a tool for managing some of these self-damaging behaviors. Inquiries regarding the program, registration, and hotel accommodations should be addressed to the CPA Head Office at (613) 234-2815, ext. 34; fax: (613) 234-9857; e-mail: icme@medical.org.

Dr. Toews is chair of the RCPSC's Standards Committee and past chair of the CPA's Special Committee on CME. Dr. Matthews is chair of the CPA's 1999 international CME conference.