online continuing medical education
TRANSCRIPT
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Prof. Dr. Armando PacherFaculty of Bioengineering
National University of Entre Rios, Argentina
Argentine Federation of Cardiology
PCVC Group
Online Continuing Medical Education An International Cardiology Congress through the Internet
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Online Continuing Medical EducationAn International Cardiology Congress through the Internet
• Our experience in Continuing Medical Education through the Internet began in 1999.
• We currently offer two main activities:
• Virtual Congresses of Cardiology
• Continuing Cardiology Education Forum
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Contents
• Brief introduction to the structure of the virtual congress:
• Who are we?
• What is the Virtual Congress of Cardiology (VCC)?
• How do we organize the VCC?
• How do we deliver the VCC?
• How much human and financial resources are needed?
• Virtual congresses that we have developed since 1999
• Continuing Cardiology Education Forum
• Online access to 4th Virtual Congress of CardiologySept 1 to Nov 30, 2005
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What is the Virtual Congress of Cardiology?
The Virtual Congress of Cardiology (VCC) is a conference that is delivered through the Internet, in which:
• lectures, round tables, clinical rounds, courses and brief communications are weekly delivered through web pages,
• speakers and participants interact through e-mail (comments, questions and replies),
• the official languages are Spanish, Portuguese and English,
• activities for self-evaluation and certification are provided,
• registration and participation are free of charge, and
• the contents remain online permanently for consultation purposes.
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Who are we?
• The Argentine Federation of Cardiology (35 scientific societies distributed along the country), and
• the Faculty of Bioengineering at the National University of Entre Rios, Argentina, have been working together since 1994, giving birth to a scientific-academic group:
• the PCVC Group, with members from:
• Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, France, Mexico, Peru, Spain, USA, Venezuela
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How do we organize the VCC?
• There are two committees:
• a Scientific Committee, and a Technical-Steering Committee.
• Both committees start working 18 months before the congress begins.
• Communications are made through mailing lists (e-mail).
• For each virtual congress, a different group of regional scientific societies is involved in the Scientific Committee, giving equal opportunities to all.
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How do we organize the VCC? (cont.)
• We define the general characteristics of the scientific program (as in any regular conference).
• We invite speakers and call for abstracts.
• We publish the instructions on how to prepare the material, such as lectures, abstracts and papers, and we offer technical assistance.
• The abstracts are peer reviewed (an average of 75% of the abstracts received are accepted).
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How do we organize the VCC? (cont.)
• The edition of lectures to be posted online starts four months before the congress begins:
• the lectures are posted in password protected pages,
• the speakers are invited to perform quality control of their lectures before they are finally posted for the general public,
• corrections are made until each speaker gives us his consent.
• For those participants who live in countries with no access to the Web, we provide a system that delivers web pages through e-mail.
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How do we deliver the VCC?
• We post contents weekly, during three months, and we send a schedule by e-mail for each week.
• The access is regulated by a general password.
• Lectures and brief communications offer a way to send comments and/or questions, through the use of forms that are connected to 19 different thematic forums.
• Due to the widespread location of participants (from 128 countries), the activities are asynchronous (no online chats nor videoconferences are made).
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How do we deliver the VCC? (cont.)
• Comments, questions and answers are organized in19 thematic areas and distributed through electronic mailing lists.
• To avoid spam and off-topic e-mails, all mailing lists are moderated.
• Messages are translated and distributed in a bilingual format (English and Spanish or in English and Portuguese).
The average time between message received and distributed is 24 hs (between 12 and 30 hs).
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We have developed four VCC between 1999 and 2005
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5th VCC: Set-Nov 2007
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4th Virtual Congress of Cardiology Sep 1 – Nov 30, 2005
Participants from 128 countries
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Human resourcesCosts and financial resources
• Human resources:
• Three staff members,
• one temporary member,
• one translator.
• 19 moderators and members of the Scientific and Technical Steering Committees, who work pro bono.
• 4th VCC costs: U$S 9,100
• Financial resources: the cost of each VCC is covered by selling advertising space to pharmaceutical and medical technology companies.
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Continuing Cardiology Education Forumwww.fac.org.ar/fec
• In the interval between congresses, the activities continue through the Continuing Cardiology Education Forum (in Spanish and Portuguese). These activities are:
• clinical rounds,
• case discussions,
• bibliographic guides,
• thematic updatings,
• symposia,
• courses,
• self-assessment and accreditation activities.
• Forums have nearly 9,000 subscribers (average 422 per mailing list) and about 8 messages per day.
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4th International Congress of Cardiology through the Internet
Sep 1 – Nov 30, 2005
We will access to the congress online: www.fac.org.ar/ccvc
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Thank you.
• Prof. Dr. Armando [email protected] 403100 Parana, Entre Rios, Argentina
• www.fac.org.ar/ccvc
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Basic bibliography, links and contact addresses
• www.hi-europe.info/files/pacher.pdf
• www.fac.org.ar/tcvc/llave/tl690/tl690i.htm
• www.fac.org.ar/revista/04v33n1/edito/edit02/pacher.htm
• www.fac.org.ar/ccvc
• www.fac.org.ar/fec
• www.fac.org.ar/cetifac
• Prof. Dr. Armando [email protected] 403100 Parana, Entre Rios, Argentina