Following some amendment to some law by some people some time back, it is now compulsory to get at least 20 CPD/CME points before you can renew your APC with KKM/MMC.
While you can close your clinic or employ risky locums to take your place while you drive on the dangerous roads to some conference or lunch meeting using Waze or Google Maps, then ask your nurse to get down and hog an empty parking place for your Nissan Sunny 130Y, only to earn a single-digit CPD/CME points per session, and then find out that your nurse kena tangkap or put on Facebook (coz it is illegal for a human to physically hog a parking place), why not I teach you how to get your CPD/CME points from the comfort of your air-conditioned room instead?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can attend one single conference and earn all 20 CPD/CME points you say. But you know those conferences need many days and you need to pay dunno how many hundreds or thousands, you know or not?
So if you are like me prefer to play it safe that kind, continue reading and I will teach you how. If you are as swag as me, you may even get all 20 CPD/CME points within a single day.
Now, you need to know that all CPD/CME points should be accumulated from 1st July of each year to the 30th June of the following year. For example, in order to apply for APC for the year 2020, you will need to collect your 20 CPD/CME points from 1st July 2018 to 30th June 2019.
What if you have collected 40 CPD/CME points during this period? No, you cannot carry the extra points forward. You will still need to collect again from 1st July 2019 to 30th June 2020 in order to apply for the APC of 2021. Sucks? IKR?
So, what do you need?
1. A PC and a handphone. PC is needed because handphone screen can be too small. Optionally, a PC with two screens preferred, so that you can have the teaching material on one screen and your exam paper on the other.
2. Your own email address. If you dunno how to get one, just ask someone below the age of 10 to set one up for you. Don’t tumpang another person’s email account just in case he/she later also become doctor then you have to change your email, very the mafan.
3. Your name, your IC number, your MMC registration number, your medical school name, your year of graduation from that school, your degree (MBBS or MD or something else), your clinic name, the address, and your sex (just in case they ask and you haven’t decided).
4. Your preferred password. Very important. I suggest one single password for all the things you are about to use for your CPD/CME purpose.
5. Take photos of your latest APC or your MMC cert thing and also your IC and store them in your phone or PC.
6. Go to Google Play Store and search for Malaysian Medical Association and download the app into your phone. The app comes with an icon of two tigers. If you see two apps, one of them is the right one. The other one is some scanner thing. If in doubt, install both. And no, you don’t have to be an MMA member to use this app, so don’t worry.
7. Search for Docquity app and install it too. It has a red icon with a speech bubble.
8. Then visit these following sites one by one, and register yourself on each and every one of them. Wait for confirmation email or verification email and confirm and verify all!
a. mims-cpd.com.my
b. docquity.com
c. cpdonline.my
d. forum.mydobbs.net/cme (my personal favourite, it has only one CPD/CME questionnaire so far but it is so hilarious that I am still giggling like a little girl remembering its hints).
9. Now that you are all signed up, and verified and confirmed, you can consider joining MMA as a member. But if you don’t want to, nobody is forcing you. Being a member (paying a hefty membership fee of RM265 per year currently) allows you to take part in a few more tests of 1 point each in mims-cpd.com.my.
I think that’s about it. I hope you all will do fine. If there is any question, feel free to ask in the comments.
Tip for mims-cpd.com.my
– You will need to go through another registration process to be eligible for CPD/CME collection even if you are already a member.
– The teaching material (module) for each test is quite hidden. After you click on ‘Take’, you will be brought to the questionnaire directly. But there is a drop-down box that you can pull down to reveal the name of the test that you are taking. Click it to select. After that, click on the sentence beside it and the browser will get you the PDF file related to the questionnaire. That is why I say a PC with two screens is very helpful.
– If you are not an MMA member, you cannot take the tests that are only meant for members.
– One thing good about mims-cpd.com.my is that your CPD/CME points earned will be reflected on your MMA app almost instantly (close and reopen the app for update). For other sites, there will be a delay before they update the database.
PS. It is good to be back in the blogging world.
2 responses to “Beginner’s Guide to Online CPD for GPs”
After all these years doc, you still blogging?! Though now is 2019… you ought to blog more… Cheers! Have always love reading your blogs way way way way back then… I really missed reading about your clinic nurses and your daily rumblings…
Hello William, it’s been many years. Glad that you are still stalking me, hehehe.
Thanks for your compliments. Will try to post more often.