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Does an offer for a free on-line continuing medical education (CME) activity increase physician survey response rate? A randomized trial.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Viera, AJ; Edwards, T
Published in: BMC Res Notes
March 7, 2012

BACKGROUND: Achieving a high response rate in a physician survey is challenging. Monetary incentives increase response rates but obviously add cost to a survey project. We wondered whether an offer of a free continuing medical education (CME) activity would be effective in improving survey response rate. RESULTS: As part of a survey of a national sample of physicians, we randomized half to an offer for a free on-line CME activity upon completion of a web-based survey and the other half to no such offer. We compared response rates between the groups. A total of 1214 out of 8477 potentially eligible physicians responded to our survey, for an overall response rate of 14.3%. The response rate among the control group (no offer of CME credit) was 16.6%, while among those offered the CME opportunity, the response rate was 12.0% (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: An offer for a free on-line CME activity did not improve physician survey response rate. On the contrary, the offer for a free CME activity actually appeared to worsen the response rate.

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Published In

BMC Res Notes

DOI

EISSN

1756-0500

Publication Date

March 7, 2012

Volume

5

Start / End Page

129

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Physicians
  • Physician Incentive Plans
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Education, Medical, Continuing
  • Data Collection
  • Bioinformatics
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
  • 1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences
 

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Viera, A. J., & Edwards, T. (2012). Does an offer for a free on-line continuing medical education (CME) activity increase physician survey response rate? A randomized trial. BMC Res Notes, 5, 129. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-129
Viera, Anthony J., and Teresa Edwards. “Does an offer for a free on-line continuing medical education (CME) activity increase physician survey response rate? A randomized trial.BMC Res Notes 5 (March 7, 2012): 129. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-129.
Viera, Anthony J., and Teresa Edwards. “Does an offer for a free on-line continuing medical education (CME) activity increase physician survey response rate? A randomized trial.BMC Res Notes, vol. 5, Mar. 2012, p. 129. Pubmed, doi:10.1186/1756-0500-5-129.
Journal cover image

Published In

BMC Res Notes

DOI

EISSN

1756-0500

Publication Date

March 7, 2012

Volume

5

Start / End Page

129

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Physicians
  • Physician Incentive Plans
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Education, Medical, Continuing
  • Data Collection
  • Bioinformatics
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
  • 1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences