Practices, Outcomes and Paradigms: Factors Causing a Change in Behavior
Abstract
Editorial Practices, Outcomes and Paradigms: Factors Causing a Change in Behavior T he time-worn adage âyou can lead a horse to water, but you canât make him drink itâ has a truthful ring in many aspects of our daily life. It suggests that our ability to influence or direct the behavior of others is limited at best. There is little doubt that the individual needs some motivation or incentive to change. Most would agree that change becomes increasingly difficult with advancing age or the more ingrained the behavior that is the target for change. Yet, we still presume that physicians and surgeons are different from the general public as regards their willingness and ability to change their practices and behaviors as new information becomes available. It is often assumed that new evidence-based treatment will become widely incorporated into the clinical armamentarium after these new ideas find their way into the peer-reviewed literature. The rationale behind the continuing medical education (CME) movement and the oversight of this process by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) is to provide high quality educational opportunities for clinicians by which they can be brought up to date with the latest information