The components available now are

• Category 1, Level 2 - Case Studies online. These cases will either be closed cases forwarded by Medical Defence organisations(MDO) or hypothetical cases some of which may be based on second part FANZCA questions. The aim will be to build a toolkit by online discussion to manage similar cases. Once logged in you will be able to add comments as to how you would manage this case and then see comments posted by other users. A editors summary of the comments about the case will be shown at the top of the page. Approval number 174.
  
   
  
• Category 2, Level 1 - Refresher courses. These are either pages with background reading, powerpoint presentations or links to useful information or references. Approval number 171.
  
   
  
• Category 2, Level 2 - Case Scenarios. These are interactive modules that reinforce the content of the refresher courses. In these modules you may enter feedback to the authors and either agree or disagree with the answers given. You have your say and can express your own opinions as the right and wrong method to approach a problem just the same as in a face to face workshop. In this way a module can be reviewed and updated to reflect the latest evidence. Approval number 172.
  
   
  

These components are being built and will be released in the near future

• Category 3, Level 1 - Practice Assessment modules. These are interactive modules that assess your practice against best practice according to published guidlines. These modules will help you to follow agreed best practice on a variety of topics. You have your say and can express your own opinions as the right and wrong approach according to the guideline. The feedback will assist the ASA in the creation of guidelines and in the event that it is a government based guideline will help guide us on the best way to lobby on your behalf. Approval number 173.
  
   
  

Many of the questions in the above modules have a best possible answer, a number of answers which are not wrong but may be not currently thought to embody best practice, and one or more wrong answers. If there is another alternative answer which is not present in the current module you have an option to send your answer online to the editors by means of a feedback page. After consideration if it is deemed a valid option the editors will add this as a possible alternative.

Other benefits:  CPD credits have been approved for the modules. Credits are only claimable once for each module until a revision of the module is released. Please keep a diary entry of how long the module took to complete.

These credits will enable anaesthetists to gain approved professional development points at their own pace. It will assist rural practitioners  who may find it difficult to obtain leave from rural areas to attend conferences. It will also allow practitioners to practice professional development continuously throughout the year at their own choice of location be it at home, at work or any place in the world where they have access to the Web.

Please let me know if you have any difficulty with the operation of any of the pages. If you do have problems include detail of the page, the problem, your operating system, the browser name and if possible version. If you are experiencing difficulty it may be also be worth using IE6 or IE7 for these modules and your favourite browser for other applications .
 

To start the modules click on the iamonline link on theASA home page