Abstract 9330: Improving Knowledge, Competence, and Confidence of Physicians Related to Antithrombotic Therapy in Cardiovascular Disease With Curriculum-Based Online Education

We sought to determine if a curriculum of online continuing medical education (CME) activities presented in multiple delivery formats could improve the clinical knowledge, competence, and confidence of cardiologists related to the use of antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic CAD, PAD, and VTE. The curriculum consisted of 13 online, CME-certified activities in multiple delivery formats. Education effect was assessed with a repeated pairs pre-/post-assessment study including a 3-item, multiple choice, knowledge/competence questionnaire and one confidence assessment question, with each participant serving as his/her own control. To assess changes in knowledge, competence, and confidence data from all clinicians who completed both pre- and post-questions were aggregated across activities and stratified by learning theme. McNemar’s test or paired samples t-test (P <.05) assessed educational effect. The activities launched from March 24, 2021 to August 2, 2021 and data were collected for up to 12 weeks for each activity. The education reached 4,847 cardiologists. Overall, there were significant relative improvements in knowledge/competence (35%, P <.001). related to understanding of recent clinical trial data regarding the use of antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic CAD/PAD, understanding of the latest guideline-based recommendations for the use of antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic CAD/PAD, understanding of the latest guideline-based recommendations for VTE prophylaxis in hospitalized medically ill patients, tailoring antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic CAD/PAD, and individualizing VTE prevention strategies in hospitalized medically ill patients. Pre-vs-post gains in confidence were seen for tailoring antithrombotic therapy in patients with chronic CAD/PAD (50% improvement, P <.001); Individualizing VTE prevention strategies in hospitalized medically ill patients (83% improvement, P <.001). The online, CME-certified curriculum resulted in significant gains in knowledge/competence and confidence among cardiologists. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of curriculum-based education designed to address specific gaps in care.