Online Continuing Medical Education

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• Online Continuing Medical Education
• An International Cardiology Congress through the
  Internet

Prof. Dr. Armando Pacher Faculty of
Bioengineering National University of Entre Rios,
Argentina Argentine Federation of
Cardiology PCVC Group
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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
Countries
Participants
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 US 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 InternetSep 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 Pacherapacher_at_fac.org.arCourre
  ges 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 Pacherapacher_at_fac.org.arCourre
  ges 403100 Parana, Entre Rios, Argentina