Curriculum-based CME-certified Migraine Programming Results in Comprehensive Improvements Across The Care Spectrum for Neurologists
Piyali Chatterjee1, Thomas Finnegan1, Kathy Merlo1, Stewart Tepper2
1Medscape Education, 2Geisel School of Medicine At Dartmouth
Objective:
In order to address the multiple clinical practice gaps in migraine, a series of CME-certified programs addressing both the diagnosis and management of migraine was developed to improve the quality of care offered by neurologists.
Background:
Migraine is a common headache disorder and is associated with substantial symptom burden. Despite the frequency with which migraine is seen in practice, evidence indicates that it is both underdiagnosed and sub-optimally managed.
Design/Methods:
The data presented here are based on outcomes from three independent CME-certified programs housed on a single destination page. Two of the CME programs asked a series of pre- and post- questions designed to assess immediate changes in knowledge, competence, and confidence. The third program was an online medical simulation designed to assess performance-level outcomes associated with the diagnosis and treatment decisions for migraine. The educational effect for all of the programs was determined by using a paired-samples t-test to identify significant differences between pre- and post-assessment responses for each question. Data across all three programs were collected starting in September 2021 through May 2022.
Results:
The number of neurologists included in the analysis across the 3 programs were 187 and 885. Clinical themes associated with significant (P <.05) pre- vs post-educational improvements in knowledge, competence, or confidence were: clinical trial data, MOA of migraine therapies, pathophysiology of migraine, and the selection of appropriate migraine therapies. Themes associated with a significant (P <.05) improvement in pre- vs post-educational performance were: making a migraine diagnosis and selecting an appropriate acute migraine treatment. Non-significant improvements were seen in the selection of preventive migraine therapies.
Conclusions:
The results indicated that curriculum-based CME-certified programming can effectively improve multiple elements related to the comprehensive care of patients with migraine. Future education should continue to address the diagnosis of migraine and the use of both acute and preventive migraine therapies.