Table 6 CME for GPs in Switzerland

Role of primary care within the health system

The special importance of general practice for primary care was incorporated into the constitution in 2014 following a popular initiative. In Switzerland, there are a number of privately financed insurance models that link a payment reduction to the obligation to always contact the general practitioner first, except in an emergency [41].

Legal regulations

Since the Medical Professions Act came into force in 2007, CME has been one of the professional duties required by law. The realisation and implementation of this duty was left to the professional organisations, which created the Swiss Institute for CME (SIWF) for this purpose [42, 43].

Published aims

The CME training programme of 2019 does not contain a specific definition of the content or learning objectives of the trainings.

Actual content

Together with the Swiss Society of General Internal Medicine (SGAIM), the SIWF offers a CME training diploma: Every year, 50 credits of a structured CME training plan need to be obtained (at least 25 hours of specialist core training with a strong internal medicine focus; and a maximum of 25 hours of extended training) plus 30 credits of self-study. 1 credit corresponds to 45–60 minutes of study time [44].

Operationalisation

CME is regulated nationally by the SIWF. CME credits are applied for via the respective professional associations. These in turn are guided by the SIWF guidelines. Since the cantons are responsible for licensing the profession, they are also responsible for monitoring the obligation to provide CME [43].

Funding and sponsorship

Training is organized by doctors or a medical expert committee. Companies or service providers cannot be organisers of CME. In case of financial support, several (pharmaceutical) companies should be involved in sponsoring. Thus, ‘mono’ sponsoring is not possible. Sponsors should not exert any influence on the content, schedule or speakers. Participants shall make an appropriate contribution to the costs (participation fee plus costs for travel and accommodation) [44].

Evaluation

An evaluation as part of the successful completion of the course is obligatory for the awarding of credits. However, the way this is done is not controlled.