The goal of this dissertation is refinement of the understanding of practicing physicians' continued learning so as to facilitate appropriate and timely application of biomedical knowledge in health care.
Specific aims are 1) to refine a proposed conceptual model of continued learning by practicing physicians; 2) to develop a method of measuring the degree of connectedness between an individual physician and the biomedical knowledge base and 3) to validate the construct of physician connectedness to the biomedical knowledge base. The conceptual model, measurement tool and construct of connectedness will be based on theory and research in medical education, medical sociology, diffusion of innovation and adult development and a pilot study by the researcher. Project activities will include: 1) further development of survey instrument items; 2) pretesting of the instrument; 3) a national survey of a randomly selected sample of practicing physicians; and 4) follow-up telephone interviews with a small sample of respondents.
