www.contraceptiononline.org

The Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine has got together with an unrestricted funding grant from Wyeth to produce the Contraception Online service. This is a reasonably simple website and offers a range of CME and patient information tools which are accessible and useful.

The main section of the site is the slide library - a CME collection of mostly non-audio presentations with a range of topics relating to contraception.

The chapter topics in the CME section are: contraceptive methods, new advances in contraception, issues in contraceptive success, contraception for special populations, non-contraceptive benefits of oral contraceptives and, finally, a section devoted to clinical pharmacology.

The site extends into the fringes of gynaecology with such clinical topics as menstrual suppression using the OCP and the management of premenstrual syndrome.

A link to the Contraception Online site was obtained through another CME-oriented site at Doctors' Guide (to be reviewed in a later article), and my initial impressions were favourable.

The reference to an article on the combined oral contraceptive was very recent, having been just published in January 2007. The other topics were (not unpredictably) male and female barrier contraceptives; vaginal contraceptive ring; natural family planning; progestin-only contraceptives: the ortho evra/evra transdermal system and, finally, an update in emergency contraception.

However, on further inspection it was disappointing to find the dates of the above reviews to span in some cases back to the last millennium.

Web-based CME has a huge advantage in being able to maintain timeliness and updating. Review articles over five years old, while sometimes 99 per cent accurate, can tend to be too easily overlooked.

One thing which we have learned to demand in medical CME is timeliness. Under the section "new advances in contraception", I noticed the review article titled "Contraception Now: New Options, Better Choices". Unfortunately, the article was published in 2002!

Online meetings

There is a special online meeting section which includes streaming audio - streaming and downloadable audio (podcasts) being the CME of the future. (The burgeoning expanse of free medical podcasts will hopefully be reviewed later this year).

And, while perhaps there is little in the way of major scientific advances or new debates in the international arena of medical contraception, I am quite sure our consumerist women's health lobbies, such as Women's Health Action, would not agree.

The dates on the audio presentations are not available and limited in number - the history of the IUCD (which is a very comprehensive historical overview), oral contraceptives and smoking, and a review covering 50 years of Family Planning.
The majority of the authors of these audio reviews have been involved with Wyeth in one way or another, despite the objective supervisory role of the Texas-based medical school.

Patient information

The site also has a range (around 40) of patient information tools and leaflets from the Baylor College managed web-satellite "Contraceptive Report". The leaflets are comprehensive and downloadable as PDF files.

Sadly, the reports - which started back in 1996 and have been carefully archived - seem to have faded away with the "current issue" of February 2004 being just a touch out of date.

However, the patient updates (information leaflets) are very good and include a range of contraception-related topics including polycystic ovarian syndrome. A couple of useful leaflets which stood out were 'Latex Allergy and Contraception' and "Birth Control during Peri Menopause".

Subscribers can register for updates but (with the exception of the recent addition of the January 2007 article on the combined contraceptive) the site is hardly likely to clog up your email in box with new material.

The Baylor College professes that it is "pleased to offer this online educational resource for healthcare providers and health educators seeking the latest information on reproductive health, family planning, and contraception".

"Our goal at Contraception Online is to explore important issues related to reproductive health in a scientific and objective manner in order to provide you with up to date and practical educational tools and materials."

The "up to date tools and materials" would not score too highly.