Continuing Medical Education Will Continue to Grow in the Future
According to a research report from Arizton, the Continuing Medical Education market will reach revenues of $11.57 billion by 2026. This is a significant increase from the reported $7.84 billion in 2020. Using this calculation, that is an estimated 6.7% increase with next year reaching around $8.37 billion in revenue. There are a number of factors and predictions as to why CME will continue to grow so steadily and consistently.
Learn From Home
Before the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing took precedence, many clinicians would seek out CME credits by attending live CME events, CME conferences, and group learning sessions that took place in classrooms. These types of environments encouraged networking, discussion, and learning from one another during the sessions.
Unfortunately, once the pandemic started, most live and in-person CME events could no longer take place. Because of this, there was a surge of e-learning and online CME throughout the CME market. Online CME is easy and convenient to accomplish and allows clinicians to meet their requirements from the safety of their own home or workplace. This delivery of online CME also helped increase awareness regarding COVID-19 symptoms in patients.
More Medical Students Every Year
Another reason for the expected boom in the CME market is that more students are applying to and entering medical school. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 2020 saw an acceptance of 23,105 medical students – a record high for the past two decades.
3D Gaming Technology
As technology progresses more into virtual reality, CME companies are trying to find more ways to integrate 3D graphics engines into their CME programs. For example, CME provider Full Code has a medical simulation app where you can diagnose and treat patients in a 3D environment – featuring over 86 simulation cases. Virtual simulation CME activities could be expected to become more prevalent as CME is moving towards combining education and 3D gaming technology.
Oncology
Oncologists is a growing segment amongst clinicians that are contributing significantly to the growth of the CME market. Oncologists along are expected to contribute an incremental growth of more than $600 million in the next several years. Oncology diagnostics are considered one of the most demanding programs amongst physicians but the field is growing due to the desire for oncology advancements in medicine.
Types of CME Providers
There are a number of different types of organizations that provide CME activities to clinicians. For example, BoardVitals is an educational company that provides board-review style question banks that earn CME, while the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a medical school-based CME provider (and one of the largest ones in New York) with CME activities on multiple platforms.
The CME market is a competitive landscape with all of these CME organizations investing in the latest topics of CME. Many of these CME providers are trying to focus on delivering their CME activities innovatively to increase their effectiveness.
Currently, non-profit organizations and physicians' organizations dominate the market, but according to the Arizton report, publishing and educational companies are expected to grow with the highest CAGR of 7.77% - a statistic that is more than $1.5 billion in growth.
CME Geography
Currently, North America dominates the CME market, but APAC (Asia-Pacific) is expected to grow at a faster CAGR of 9.24% through 2026, due to their large number of physicians. Perhaps this could lead to CME companies and organizations increasing their geographic reach in the coming years.