Continuing professional development (CPD) is essential for physicians to maintain and enhance their knowledge, competence, skills, and performance. Web-based CPD plays an essential role. However, validated theory-informed measures of their impact are lacking. The CPD-REACTION questionnaire is a validated theory-informed tool that evaluates the impact of CPD activities on clinicians' behavioral intentions.

The authors aimed to review the use of the CPD-REACTION questionnaire, which measures the impact of CPD activities on health professionals' intention to change a clinical behavior. They sought CPD activity characteristics, ranges of intention, mean scores, score distributions, and psychometric properties.

The authors conducted a systematic review informed by Cochrane review methodology. They searched 8 databases from 01/01/2014 to 04/20/2021. Grey literature was identified using Google Scholar and Research Gate. Eligibility criteria included: all healthcare professionals, any study design, and participants' completion of the CPD-REACTION questionnaire either before, after, or before and after a CPD activity. 

Sixty-five citations were eligible and referred to 52 primary studies. The number of primary studies reporting use of CPD-REACTION has increased continuously since 2014 from 1 to 16 publications per year (2021). It is available in English, French, Spanish and Dutch. Most studies were located in Canada (30/52). Forty different clinical behaviors were identified. The most common CPD format was e-learning (n=34/52). The original version of CPD-REACTION was used in 31/52 studies, and an adapted version in 18/52 studies. Sixteen studies (30.8%) measured both pre- and post-intervention scores. In 22 studies the CPD providers were university-based. Most studies targeted interprofessional groups of health professionals (31/52).

Authors concludes that use of CPD-REACTION has increased rapidly and across a wide range of clinical behaviors and formats, including web-based. Further research should investigate the most effective way to adapt the CPD-REACTION questionnaire to a variety of clinical behaviors and contexts.