Conceptualization and Reporting of Context in the North American Continuing Medical Education Literature

Within continuing medication education (CME), it has been argued that an "authentic" clinical context should be built into CME activities for knowledge to be effectively translated into clinical practice. However, although context is considered significant in the success (or lack thereof) of an intervention, there is a lack of consensus on what exactly context is. This scoping review arises from concerns surrounding the opaque, complex, and potentially problematic relationship between context and the effective design and implementation of CME interventions. In this article, we present a protocol for examining how context is discussed within the CME literature. The specific purpose of this scoping review is to summarize the breadth of existing evidence on context within the North American CME literature. The scoping review methodology will also highlight gaps in the current literature, which can inform future research endeavors.