The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7179 p873-877
22-29 December 2001

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King's wins grant for online CPD

King's College London has received a £250,000 grant from the European Community's social fund to undertake research on the use of online methods for providing continuing professional development programmes to pharmacists and dentists.

The work will be undertaken by a team from the department of pharmacy and the institute of dentistry at King's. They will be looking at whether online interactive conferences and video streaming of lectures over the internet (webcasting) can be successfully used to deliver CPD materials.

Dr Larry Goodyer, CPD project manager at King's, said that the funding came from a scheme aimed at delivering higher education to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Most independent community pharmacies and dentists are classified as SMEs.

"The webcast lectures will be available on demand for pharmacists to call up whenever they have time. We will be looking at how they can use these in the pharmacy. Interactive conferences will take place at set times, such as during lunch or after work, between five pharmacists and a tutor at King's. They will be able to hear, and possibly see, the tutor and send in questions using chat room software," Dr Goodyer explained.

Pharmacists in the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham and the Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Health Authority areas will be invited to take part initially. Materials will be supplied free of charge with subsequent telephone interviews to judge the usefulness of the online services. After a six-month pilot phase, pharmacists from outside London may be able to join in.

The project will run for two years and cover five topics. The first will be clinical governance because it applies to both pharmacy and dentistry. Further details can be found on the King's College website.

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