Associations Between Physician Continuous Professional Development and Referral Patterns: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose Both overuse and underuse of clinician referrals can compromise high-value health care. The authors sought to systematically identify and synthesize published research examining associations between physician continuous professional development (CPD) and referral patterns. Method The authors searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane Database on April 23, 2020, for comparative studies evaluating CPD for practicing physicians and reporting physician referral outcomes. Two reviewers, working independently, screened all articles for inclusion. Two reviewers reviewed all included articles to extract information, including data on participants, educational interventions, study design, and outcomes (referral rate, intended direction of change, appropriateness of referral). Quantitative results were pooled using meta-analysis. Results Of 3,338 articles screened, 31 were included. These studies enrolled at least 14,458 physicians and reported 381,165 referral events. Among studies comparing CPD with no intervention, 17 studies with intent to increase referrals had a pooled risk ratio of 1.91 (95% confidence interval: 1.50, 2.44; P
Source: Academic Medicine - Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Reviews Source Type: research