Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Dec 2:9:70.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-9-70.

Continuing medical education challenges in chronic fatigue syndrome

Dana J Brimmer  1 , K Kimberly McCleary, Teresa A Lupton, Katherine M Faryna, William C Reeves
Affiliations

Continuing medical education challenges in chronic fatigue syndrome

Dana J Brimmer et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) affects at least 4 million people in the United States, yet only 16% of people with CFS have received a diagnosis or medical care for their illness. Educating health care professionals about the diagnosis and management of CFS may help to reduce population morbidity associated with CFS.

Methods: This report presents findings over a 5-year period from May 2000 to June 2006 during which we developed and implemented a health care professional educational program. The objective of the program was to distribute CFS continuing education materials to providers at professional conferences, offer online continuing education credits in different formats (e.g., print, video, and online), and evaluate the number of accreditation certificates awarded.

Results: We found that smaller conference size (OR = 80.17; 95% CI 8.80, 730.25), CFS illness related target audiences (OR = 36.0; 95% CI 2.94, 436.34), and conferences in which CFS research was highlighted (OR = 4.15; 95% CI 1.16, 14.83) significantly contributed to higher dissemination levels, as measured by visit rates to the education booth. While print and online courses were equally requested for continuing education credit opportunities, the online course resulted in 84% of the overall award certificates, compared to 14% for the print course. This remained consistent across all provider occupations: physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and allied health professionals.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that educational programs promoting materials at conferences may increase dissemination efforts by targeting audiences, examining conference characteristics, and promoting online continuing education forums.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Fukuda K, Straus SE, Hickie I, Sharpe MC, Dobbins JG, Komaroff A. The chronic fatigue syndrome: a comprehensive approach to its definition and study. Ann Int Med. 1994;121:953–959. - PubMed
    1. Reeves WC, Lloyd A, Vernon SD, Klimas N, Jason LA, Bleijenberg G, Evengard B, White PD, Nisenbaum R, Unger ER. Identification of ambiguities n the 1994 chronic fatigue syndrome research case definition and recommendations for resolution. BMC Health Services Research. 2003;3:25. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-3-25. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Reeves WC, Jones JF, Maloney E, Heim C, Hoaglin DC, Boneva R, Morrissey M, Devlin R. Prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome in metropolitan, urban, and rural Georgia. Population Health Metrics. 2007;8(5):5. doi: 10.1186/1478-7954-5-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Reyes M, Nisenbaum R, Hoaglin DC, Emmons C, Stewart G, Randall B, Stewart JA, Abbey S, Jones JF, Gantz N, Minden S, Reeves WC. Prevalence and incidence of chronic fatigue syndrome in Wichita, Kansas. Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:1530–1536. doi: 10.1001/archinte.163.13.1530. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jason LA, Richman JA, Rademaker AW, Jordan KM, Plioplys AV, Taylor RR, McCready W, Huan CF, Plioplys S. A community-based study ofchronicfatigue syndrome. Arch Int Med. 1999;159:2129–2137. doi: 10.1001/archinte.159.18.2129. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms