J Educ Eval Health Prof.  2013;10:7.

Continuing medical education as a national strategy to improve access to primary care in Saudi Arabia

• Alshammary SA
• Ratnapalan S
• Akturk Z

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an educational program in family medicine for general practitioners in Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2011. A continuing medical education program called Family Medicine Education (FAME) was developed with 7 modules each consisting of 12-14 hours of teaching to be delivered in 3 day blocks, over 45 days. Twenty percent (2,761) of all general practitioners participated in the FAME program. Initial assessment of the program showed significant improvement of knowledge from scores of 49% on a pre-test to 89% on post-tests. FAME program in Saudi Arabia facilitated primary care physicians' knowledge.

Keyword

Primary care; Family medicine; Continuing medical education; Implementation; Physician education

MeSH Terms

Education
Education, Medical, Continuing*
General Practitioners
Humans
Primary Health Care*
Saudi Arabia*

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Diagram of 7 modules of Family Medicine Education (FAME) course opened from 2009-2012 in Saudi Arabia.

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