At a media conference June 2 to highlight the success of MDcme.ca, speakers included (L-R): Dr. Sharon Peters, Dr. Susan King, Elizabeth Marshall, Dr. James Rourke, Fran Kirby and Josee Ann Maurais, Pfizer Canada.

MDcme.ca celebrates successes with nation-wide challenge 

MDcme.ca, an online learning portal for Canadian physicians, has launched a nation-wide, virtual challenge to celebrate its first-year successes. The challenge encourages physicians to submit short testimonials about their experiences with online continuing medical education (CME). 

“We are very excited about this challenge and the ongoing successes of MDcme.ca,” said Fran Kirby, manager of the Office of Professional Development, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland. “We look forward to gathering valuable feedback from physicians that will allow us to further develop the Web site, and continue to meet the needs of the medical community.”

The challenge will require physicians to submit testimonial about their success with MDcme.ca, or a description of why they believe the portal to be a valuable resource for professional development. Winning physicians will have the opportunity to take MDcme.ca courses free for one year. A judging committee comprised of representatives from each MDcme.ca partner university will select entries. One submission per university partner will be selected – eleven winners in all. The challenge began June 2, 2004 and will run until the end of the year. Instructions on how to enter are posted on MDcme.ca and winners will be announced in December.

MDcme.ca provides physicians with a “one-stop shop” where physicians can take accredited, state-of-the-art online CME courses and also find links that will allow them to search library sources and journals, among other practice management tools. MDcme.ca uses the Internet along with leading edge e-learning tools and resources to connect physicians in a central virtual community. MDcme.ca reaches physicians nationally and currently offers 25 courses online, with additional courses in development. The Web site is now bilingual, enabling MDcme.ca to reach physicians and health care practitioners in francophone communities. 

MDcme.ca was developed by Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine to address the professional development needs of family physicians across Canada. The consortium of Canadian university medical schools distinguishes MDcme.ca from other Web sites offering online CME.  University partners (11 partners to date) across Canada include: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dalhousie University Université Laval, Université de Montréal, University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, McMaster University, University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and University of British Columbia.