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Letters to the Editor
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Continuing professional development
What are the benefits for offline users?
From Mr J. M. McLusky, MRPharmS
Recording continuing professional development is now possible in two
ways — online or desktop — and I received my copies this
week.
In 2003, I wrote a letter (PJ, 9 August 2003, p176) making a request
that was fairly simple to anyone with a little computer know-how. I wanted
to enter my CPD offline and, when corrected to my satisfaction, possibly
over several days, save it to my own computer and then transmit it online
to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s server. Instead of this we
have an either/or system. If you choose offline you cannot transmit it
like an e-mail but must copy it to a disk and send it to the Society.
The benefits and shortcomings of the two systems are detailed in the
user guide. It appears that there are no benefits to offline users; you
are treated like an outsider with the appropriate warnings of potential
removal from the Register — a real incentive for CPD for members
without an online facility.
If this is the outcome of 18 months’ work on CPD recording no wonder
the expenses of the Society are rising.
J. Macrae McLusky
Wotton under Edge,
Gloucestershire
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FRED AYLING, CPD officer, Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, replies:
I have sympathy with J. Macrae McLusky’s
suggestion that CPD Desktop and CPD Online should synchronise with
one another.
It would
clearly offer benefits to some pharmacists and we are keen to do
all we can to make the technology work for them.
There are, though, technical difficulties with this that may lead
to complications and unsatisfactory results.
As CPD Desktop allows users to save their CPD record to disk and open it on
any computer that has CPD Desktop installed, it is possible that users may
find themselves
with different versions of their CPD record on multiple PCs, tinkering with
one version here and another there. The problem of then synchronising with
CPD Online
is knowing which version the pharmacist wishes to keep. In the worse case scenario,
users may find themselves irretrievably losing records that they wanted to
keep.
For users of personal digital assistants, the analogy would be to try to synchronise
the PDA with two or more PCs. Palm, a long-standing and major provider of PDA
software, advises the following on their website: “If you attempt to do
a two-way synchronisation with both computers, your data can become very confused.” It
goes on to advise that such a synchronisation not be undertaken.
We have not ruled out investigating this possibility further, but due to the
significant programming and piloting costs involved, we thought that it was
a priority to develop an electronic recording system that can be used by those
without an internet connection.
Since CPD Online does everything that CPD Desktop does, and more, it is correct
to say that the only benefit of CPD Desktop over CPD Online is that an internet
connection is not required. We provide this information in the user guide and
also when installing CPD Desktop to help members make the best decision about
what is best for them. It is, though, their choice.
As users of CPD Desktop store their CPD record locally on a hard disk, floppy
disk or CD, there is a risk that their record may be accidentally deleted,
corrupted or lost should their computer be stolen. It is appropriate that members
are advised
of this and that failure to produce a CPD record when requested may lead to
removal from the Register (consider the alternative: to not inform members
of this).
This is not intended to act as a disincentive but as encouragement to back
up their record regularly and to keep copies at different locations. Users
of CPD
Online need not worry about this as daily backups are made of their CPD record
on their behalf and these are stored at different sites — quite a weight
off many a mind and a benefit I think worth stressing. |
Desktop software is unusable
From Mr A. Phillips, MRPharmS
Having seen the announcement of the continuing professional development
desktop software in the PJ (5 February, p156), I applied for a copy.
Imagine my surprise when instead of receiving a simple CD-ROM and instruction
leaflet, I received an expensive looking package that was apparently
unusable.
The software does not support Windows 95, which our dispensary computer
runs on (being DOS-based, I have no way of upgrading the operating system
until Mediphase launches Nexphase). So, I had to install the software
at home on a Windows PC (Mac OS does not support the desktop and Linux
is just ignored), but not an up-to-date Windows PC since “service
pack 2” causes problems with some functions, ie, the ability to
print out CPD records.
The response from the CPD technical helpdesk is that I should be running
Windows 98 or above — an option not available at work because my
PMR supplier does not support it — or that I should use the website
because it is much better.
I do not wish to keep my CPD records online. I have concerns about security
and am much happier being responsible for the backup and maintenance
of my own records. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society seems to be railroading
members into using the online forms, which are not available or appropriate
for all members. As for the waste of money on the packaging of the desktop
software, I hope we are not expected to finance this with further rises
in the registration fee.
Alun Phillips
Liverpool
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FRED AYLING, CPD officer, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:
Having had to upgrade my own computer over the years, I understand
Alun Phillips’s
frustration at finding that some software does not work with the upgrade
while other software requires it. This is, though, inevitable in an
area of technology that moves with such pace.
In line with much new software, CPD Desktop does not support Windows
95. Windows 95 is now 10 years old, which in terms of information
technology is a long time.
Microsoft stopped its mainstream support for Windows 95 in December 2000
and its extended support in December 2001. CPD Desktop was launched
in December 2004.
The number of users of Mac and Linux operating systems is small and the cost
involved in developing software compatible with them could not be justified.
The issue with printing CPD records is not linked with service pack 2 but
is rather a general bug in the software. A fix is on the way and will be
available
shortly. An announcement will be made in The Pharmaceutical Journal. This
bug does not prevent users from using CPD Desktop to record their CPD.
Mr Phillips is correct to point out that CPD Online may not be right for
all members, which is why we have provided them with the choice of keeping
records
online, using CPD Desktop or keeping paper records. In making this choice
it is only right that we point out the advantages and disadvantages of each
recording
system. CPD Online does all that CPD Desktop does but also provides additional
functionality that is only made possible by using internet technology. Pointing
this out will inevitably mean promoting CPD Online over CPD Desktop, whose
only advantage is that no internet connection is required. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal