Data-linked groups: a method for continuing professional education.

The relationship is reviewed between standards of performance and the objectives of continuing education. The difficulties of providing continuing medical education which has objectives derived from appropriate standards are illustrated by reference to general practice. A method is described in which a number of small groups of general practitioners attend separate but simultaneous evening meetings linked to a coordinating centre by a viewdata system. In this way the same problems from general practice are presented to each group. Participants respond first as individuals then contribute to group discussion, led by a tutor, from which a consensus approach to each problem emerges. This is transmitted and received along with those from other groups, at the coordinating centre. All responses to a problem are combined there and made available to the groups on viewdata later in the evening. The validity of the exercise is discussed in relation to the type of problem used, the group-consensus and the combining of responses from a number of groups. The method appears to be attractive to general practitioners, relevant to their work and capable of providing continuing education based on appropriate standards of performance. Its possible application to continuing education in other disciplines is referred to.