The website provides a one-stop solution for the CME needs of doctors, both in Hong Kong and overseas. CME is a life-time commitment for doctors, but the major hurdle is the conflict of time between medical seminars and patient care.

CME resources on the Internet, both local and overseas, can be located with ease using a search engine. An archive of over 200 local medical lectures (voice-over slides) of different specialties is available for doctors to study at their own time, pace, and area of interest.  For overseas CME resources, we have built a library of CME web links (annotated) on the Internet. All websites in the library are categorized according to the specialty (e.g. urology, dermatology) as well as the nature of the website (e.g. journals, textbooks, practice guidelines).

There are also online quizzes in Dermatology, Radiology, ECG and self-study articles for self assessment. Accreditations will also be made for correct answers.

Rapidly advancing medical technologies, higher patient expectations, and the availability of abundant health information on the Internet for patients, are forcing doctors to keep themselves updated on a regular basis.  It has become a life-long commitment for all doctors, local and overseas, to be involved in CME. However, doctors are facing increasing difficulties in having medical lectures conflict with their schedule of patient care.

It is our belief that ICT could help doctors overcome this hurdle and it is envisaged that ICT will play an increasingly important role in CME in the time to come. As a matter of fact, it is much superior compared to the traditional physical attendance at lectures and seminars.  CME materials can now be made multimedia, and with integrated interactivity the learning and teaching could be made more effective and efficient.

There is, in fact, a great deal of effort put into preparing CME materials by different academic institutions in different parts of the world.  However, these CME websites are poorly marketed, and few doctors know about the existence of these useful CME sites.  On the other hand, doctors are always busy hunting for CME materials on the web, but search results from search engines often give commercial and outdated information. It is a good time to bridge the gap.  Indexing, categorization of CME websites, and directory services for CME sites would allow these CME websites to be utilized better by the medical practitioners.  In our website, annotations and comments would be added so that users would find it easier to identify which CME website to visit.

If we take a look into the future, ICT will play a major role in the effective and efficient delivery of educational materials for practicing doctors, as doctors can have CME sessions in their free time, at their own pace, in their own area of interest, and have their effort accredited.

It is our firm belief that ICT will become an ideal platform for future CME activities.  Apart from the existing features of the website, more multimedia educational materials can be created with the advancing computer/graphics technology, which can make CME far more effective and efficient than conventional lecturing using a projector and which is held in a hotel function room.  More interactivity can be incorporated between the doctor and the educator through the Internet, and it also saves traveling time for doctors.

Our website will serve as a showcase for CME on an ICT platform, with the aim of inviting more comments and inspiration from our users on various areas of improvement.  The improvements include allowing online registration for CME events via our CME calendar to hear multi-lingual lectures so that doctors with different mother tongues can listen to the lectures in different languages.  We have plans to address the difficulties of accreditation based on authentication and virtual attendance of CME lectures and courses by using an Electronic Certificate approach and randomized quizzes during the CME lectures and courses. Distance learning and Certificate/Diploma courses can be delivered through the platform.