SOURCE: Medical Directions Inc.

Tucson, Arizona, December 22, 2008: Improving doctor's ability to recognize and manage substance abuse problems in their patients, while reducing the cost of medical training, is the goal of a $900,000 grant awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to e-Learning company, Medical Directions, Inc (MDI). The two-part award, which will last for 3 years, will allow MDI to develop and evaluate an online education program to teach practicing doctors and physicians in training the skills of screening, brief intervention, referral, and treatment (SBIRT).

MDI is a 13-year-old online medical education publishing company that works with major academic medical centers. This project will involve a close collaboration between MDI and experts from the University of Miami School of Medicine and other physician training programs in South Florida. MDI President, John M. Harris Jr., MD, notes that, "This award will further MDI's research into new technologies to improve medical education and lower training costs for doctors."

The specific goals of the research project include development of an online SBIRT training program based on artificial virtual patients. The researchers intend to determine whether letting doctors use the typical e-learning "trial and error" approach to managing virtual patients is superior to a more structured "guided learning approach." Based on the research outcomes, MDI plans to market an online version of the SBIRT training program to medical schools and graduate medical training (residency) programs within 3 years.

About MDI - MDI is a privately held company that works with academic medical centers, professional organizations, and government agencies to develop, evaluate, and distribute online education programs for health professionals. For more information, please visit www.md-inc.com.

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