HIV/AIDS Web-Based Training for Health Care Providers

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Healthcare Education Associates (HCEA proposes to develop and evaluate an interactive online Continuing Medical Education (CME) program that will: 1) enhance primary care practitioners (PCPs) ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV/AIDS in adults aged 50 and over; 2) be more effective than traditional CME programs; and 3) be inexpensively marketed to health care practitioners throughout the U.S. The program will be sponsored for 4+ hours of AMA Category 1 Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit and will be marketed by Medical Directions, Inc. (MDI) via its commercial CME website, The Virtual Lecture Hall. The proposed program will be created in the form of a "Virtual Clinic." This model utilizes the interactive capabilities of the computer to achieve educational efficiency and effectiveness by providing realistic simulation of the practice world. The specific aims of Phase II are to: 1) develop an online CME program based on the curriculum written in Phase I; 2) pilot-test the program; and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of the program in meeting the learning objectives. It is proposed that the design for the Phase II Study will include both immediate and six-month follow-up assessments and a comparison of the online CME program to a traditional CME program presented in a written format in terms of the degree of attainment of the learning objectives and subsequent incorporation of content into the ongoing clinical practice.