As a longtime and very satisfied user of Epocrates, I was enthusiastic about their newest product, MobileCME. Like their other products, MobileCME is intuitive and easy to use. Start by downloading the CME program from the Epocrates' home page. It's a free application which gets downloaded along with the free Epocrates Rx drug guide. This takes only a few seconds and then you synchronize your PDA with your computer so that the MobileCME program is loaded into your PDA (works on both Palm and PPC OS devices). After that, the rest is really easy.
Opening up the MobileCME program on your PDA involves simply tapping on the black medical bag logo on the upper right hand tab of the Epocrates task bar. The first logo on the upper left-hand corner will be for the MobileCME application.
The top heading is "All Specialties," and it lists all of the CME articles available in all areas. If you tap on the "All Specialties" listing, you will get a detailed listing of approximately twenty-five specialties. Within each specialty listing are several continuing education articles with many more to follow in the future.
You can pick and choose your area of interest, and once you have located a topic or article that you are interested in reading, all you have to do is tap on the title. Here I have selected the course Depression in Women. The CME program provides you all of the information that you would have if you were reading a journal and holding it in your hand. This includes the full title of the article, the accredited provider, the number of credits that you can earn by reading the article, the release date of the article, the estimated time to read the article (usually about one half of an hour), an accreditation statement, the faculty, faculty disclosures, and the goals and learning objectives of the article. In addition, the target audience is listed, along with the important off-label disclosures.
The staff at Epocrates have made it really easy to earn continuing education credits whenever and wherever you have a few minutes to spare. That includes commuting on the train or bus, spare time in between meetings or patients, and those long hours spent in airports and on planes. The CME articles are well written and up-to-date, and you will find that they provide useful and helpful information for your practice.
After reviewing the article overview, you start reading the article by selecting "Begin Article." The main screen is broken down into convenient sections for quick reference or you can just start reading at the top. After completing the article, select the "Begin Questions" button to start answering the questions needed to satisfy the requirements for CME. The questions are either brief true and false or multiple choice. The MobileCME application comes with a great toggle feature that allows you to link back to the article to review the topic area if you are stumped for an answer. You do this by selecting the "See Article" link below the questions answer list. This takes you exactly to the place in the article where the question is addressed. Once you have learned more, you can toggle right back to the questions by selecting the "Questions" tab--without even losing your place.
If you answer the question incorrectly, you can try to answer it with another option by selecting "Try again" to be brought back to the answer list. Or you can select "See Article" and the toggle feature comes in handy again by taking you right to the section in the article that is related to the question you are reading. When you are ready, you can quickly toggle back to the question you were answering from the Article.
When you answer a question correctly, a review of the answer is presented along with acknowledgement that you have answered correctly. You then select "Next" to be taken to the next question.
Typically each CME course has about 3-6 course questions followed by a couple brief course evaluation questions. Successfully completing the CME questions entitles you to submit your results for credit, and you are issued a certificate to confirm completion of the CME and the awarding of credits. To do this, you first select the credit hours from the "Actual Credit Hours Taken" pull down list. Once selected, you can submit your results by selecting "Send Results." Once you verify that your email address is correct, you select "OK" and your information prepped for submittal. Sending in your completed results for credit is completed the next time you synchronize your mobile device. You can choose to synchronize right away to submit your results, or you can complete one or more courses at a time before synchronizing and submitting your results. The information is relayed to the accredited provider, and Epocrates then sends you an email with your course completion certificate from the accredited provider.
If you chose to just read up on a subject area and test your knowledge but don't need the credits, you have the option of declining to have the information sent back to Epocrates and the accredited provider the next time that you synchronize. And if you lose your certificate or decide to get credit later, you can easily have the certificate sent to you. Go to your Epocrates MobileCME learning system home screen, Tap on any program title with a status of "Done," and you will be able to request another copy of your certificate to be delivered to you via email.
Most of the articles provide between one half and one credit of CME. I have found the Epocrates MobileCME program easy to use, and it makes earning CME's as painless as possible. I do not know how they do it, but there is no charge for using the MobileCME program or being issued a certificate. This is your chance to take total control of your CME learning-at your schedule and at your pace. This is a program that I highly recommend to my colleagues.
Peter Berman, M.D.