interviews

Logging learning on the go

Peter Markham, web editor at the General Medical Council, talks to NHE about a new app that allows doctors to record their learning on the go. David Stevenson reports.

Doctors in the UK have a responsibility to identify, plan and undertake continuing professional development (CPD) to remain up to date and fit to practise, which they must demonstrate during their appraisals. 

However, maintaining their CPD amid a pressured work schedule can be challenging. 

Following a consultation with doctors, the General Medical Council (GMC) found that many professionals were saying they needed help with their CPD and that “something to help them log their learning on the go” would be beneficial. 

The end product has been the ‘GMC My CPD’ app launched in early August, which has so far had more than 13,000 downloads, 6,000 registered users and about 7,500 learning activities logged. 

Good medical practice 

Peter Markham, web editor at the GMC, who worked on the app’s development, told NHE: “We wanted to give doctors something that allowed them to log their learning quickly and something to help them understand a little bit more about how to plan CPD, reflect on it and prepare for appraisal.” 

The CPD app allows users to record as many learning activities as they need to, and they can categorise them according to the GMC’s good medical practice domains: knowledge, skills and performance; safety and quality; communication, partnership and teamwork; and maintaining trust. 

“The conversation doctors have about CPD in their appraisal relates to what they have learned across the four domains and that ties back to their revalidation,” said Markham. “So the app allows them to categorise their learning in a way which is useful in terms of appraisal and revalidation.” 

Alternatively, doctors can assign CPD credits to activities, log them against their personal development plan objectives and view a ‘hot topics’ section that highlights potential learning opportunities. 

In the early stages of the app’s development, the GMC considered ‘deep digital’ integration with the various CPD/appraisal/revalidation systems used by doctors. 

“But because there are so many of these systems, and they are so different, it wasn’t feasible,” said Markham. “So we worked with a user group – made up of professionals across the UK at different stages of their career – and asked them what the best thing to do was to get content from the CPD app into the reporting systems.” 

The ultimate decision was that all learning activities from the app could be exported in the form of a PDF or Excel report and appended to the existing CPD systems. The user group, which was involved during the entire development and testing process, backed this decision. 

Mobile technology company Apadmi, which also developed the BBC iPlayer app, was the GMC’s development partner on the project. 

Easy to use 

“We have put a lot of effort into ensuring that doctors know what to do when they start using the app,” said Markham. “We have chosen fairly conventional symbols to make it easy for people who have used other apps to realise what they do.”

However, to support anyone who does have issues, there is an in-app tutorial explaining what the different buttons do, and there is an online video and FAQ section. 

The app can be downloaded through Android and Apple app stores on most mobiles and tablets. Asked if it could be expanded to other platforms like Windows, Markham said: “Our position is that we didn’t invest in the Windows platform initially because the proportion of doctors using it is very small. 

“But it is something that we are monitoring as time goes on. So if we do see there is a strong case for making a significant change – like creating the app on a different platform – we’d definitely look at it.” 

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, added that CPD is an integral part of practising medicine and “we very much hope this app will be a useful aid for frontline doctors”. 

“We have developed and tested it with practising professionals – it should help doctors keep their learning records up to date, and reflect appropriately on their learning,” he said. 

NHE was also told that, rather than resting on its laurels with this development, the GMC is looking to develop an app that can help with ethical dilemmas and GMC standards. 

“Whether that links into the existing CPD app or not is to be decided,” said Markham, adding that he hopes the new development, which is in the discussion phase, could be pushed out next year.

To download the ‘GMC My CPD’ app visit:

Google Playstore or Apple iTunes

For more information about the app, click here.