Educationally influential physicians: the need for construct validation.

Introduction: Educationally influential physicians may be a valuable resource in continuing medical education. Although the idea driving this research--informal learning--converges with research in adult education, organizational learning, marketing, and knowledge diffusion, the results of interventions have proven inconclusive. To actualize the promise of the educationally influential physician (EIP) construct, it is argued that researchers must return to the "classic" studies in this area and resume the process of validating the meaning of the construct.

Methods: A literature review and the occasion of an educationally influential physician identification survey provided an opportunity to contribute to development of this construct. We compared three identification rules used to study 212 physicians.

Results: Each rule may identify different people as EIPs.

Discussion: To improve the use of educational influentials, research must be completed to validate their role in informal learning.