Integrating the Patient Voice into Continuing Medical Education Results in Improved Clinician Knowledge and Performance in Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Healthcare providers (HCPs) treating patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are faced with a continually changing treatment landscape. As new therapeutic options become available, establishing effective patient-centric treatment plans, based upon newly identified targets and incorporating mechanism of action, will be increasingly essential to achieving optimum patient outcomes. 

Objectives: Design an educational activity that addresses latest the therapeutic options for MS and integrates audio responses directly from patients in order to raise awareness of challenges patients face and narrow knowledge and performance gaps among HCPs.

Methods: The activity consisted of a 60-minute webcast, followed by a 30-minute live Q&A. Audio from interviews with MS patient leaders (n = 21) were integrated into the content. An outcomes study was conducted via a survey administered prior to the activity, immediately after the activity, and 3 months following the activity. The survey consisted of questions evaluating knowledge, competence, performance, and confidence. Data were analyzed using McNemar’s tests for paired data. Effect size, expressed as Cohen’s d,was also calculated for overall knowledge.

Results: Over 1800 HCPs participated in the activity, including 200 HCPs in the pre-activity and post-activity outcomes study, and 27 participants in the follow-up survey. A significantly larger number of participants post-activity versus pre-activity achieved correct responses on knowledge questions related to identifying agents effective for relapsing forms of MS (70% versus 36%, p < .001), the therapeutic agent with best impact on brain volume loss (75% versus 27%, p < .001), elements of shared decision-making (81% versus 39%, p < .001), and adverse events as important for communicating risk (85% versus 59%, p < .001). These findings reflect an effect size of 1.11 (large = .8). For a performance question asking how often HCPs incorporate mechanism of action into their treatment decisions, participants in the follow-up survey outperformed those in the pre-activity survey (70% versus 23%, p < .001). Confidence for identifying factors of importance to their patients was also improved at the follow-up assessment compared to before the activity (56% versus 19%, p < .001).

Conclusions: Incorporating the patient voice into the educational activity was an effective format for providing insight and perspective leading to improved HCP learning and performance.