We believe that the FAME courses is establish a well structured training facility for primary care physicians enabling them to gain theoretical knowledge as well as concrete and solid information, which they can directly apply at work. Long term result of the courses will be standardized and high quality physician work force in primary care.

In Saudi Arabia as in many other countries in the middle east,  general practitioners(GP) and family physicians(FP) are not the same and family medicine is a 4 year post graduate training program where as a physician could enter general practice after a one year  internship.

The number of qualified family physicians in Saudi Primary Health Care (PHC) Centers is far below the expectations and needs and providing additional  4 years of training is for all the GPs is not a feasible option.   With the increasing health care expenditure and prevalence of chronic illnesses, community based care  is one of the best solution to provide high quality holistic and comprehensive care, to meet the needs of the majority of the population. As other countries tried to provide non –physician extenders such as Nurse practitioners and Physician Assistants, Saudi Arabia decided to provide a CME program for all the GPs to train them  in a relatively short time, and enable them to work at the family practice settings in Saudi Arabia.    This  6 month intensive seven modular CMEs course was initially  started as The modular one (FAME) project in 2008. Since then we have conducted in every year and are evaluating the impact.

Taking FAME courses toward a physician development may improve the work environment in primary care practices.

1. Postgraduate family medicine training center -Riyadh-MOH.

2. Continuing Education & Professional Development Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

The FAME courses was nationally conducted in 2009 in 3 regions with 221(86.3%) from total number of GPs in that areas.61.3% (157) succeed to complete all modules of fame course. In 2010 expanded happen and the course was conduct 6 regions with 497(29.1%) from total number of GPs in that areas.25.8% (440) succeed to complete all modules of fame course. Lastly,  2011 more expansion happen and the course was conduct in other 6 regions with 986(46.3%) from total number of GPs in that areas.43.4% (426) succeed to complete all modules of fame course.

1. Jannette Collins,Education Techniques for Lifelong Learning:Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century and Beyond. RadioGraphics. 2009;29(2):613-622.