Peer review is the kind of phrase designed to strike fear into the heart of many a practitioner. But peer review doesn't mean coming under aggressive scrutiny and judgment of competitor practitioners or having your professionalism dissected.
This week (page 12) Optician starts the process of explaining how peer review will be adopted as part of the next cycle of CET and also making places at a peer review session available to readers. The next three-year slice of CET will see a number of new delivery methods as the GOC introduces more interactivity to the learning process. This is no mean feat given that the close on 13,000 optometrists and nearly 7,000 DOs have a minimum of 36 points each to earn. Making peer review available to its readership is just one of a number of new ways Optician intends to change delivery of its CET to meet the GOC's requirements.
Optician was in the vanguard of magazine-based distance learning long before CET became compulsory, so it is no surprise that Optician is determined to make the transition to more interactive methods of earning CET points as painless as possible for its readership. It won't come as a surprise to discover that the internet will play a large part in the new ways of learning and over the coming weeks we will explain how these methods will work.
As Optician subscribers you will be at the forefront of these new ways of learning. As they unfold please tell us what you think of them.