As a doctor, you learn through clinical experience. Your day is not structured into a series of clinical topics, or based upon a rigid course outline.

Rather, you continuously learn based upon what comes through your door next. So this is how we have designed the our online learning. It is nearly 300 hours of simulated clinical practice that covers all types of presentations that you encounter. In practice, your next case could be anything. So it's the same with the online learning programs - your learning journey can start anywhere you like.

The traditional model of clinical education has been topic-based. A particular discipline is divided into information topics, which are worked through in a structured order. So you might start with the cervical spine and work your way through all of the listed conditions and then the lumbar spine, then the shoulder etc. But this doesn't match the reality of your daily practice.

In contrast, we organise your learning to match what you're dealing with in practice right now. You can complete the learning activities based upon your clinical curiosity, and to match the patient cases that you are currently managing.

A 'diagnosis' or 'named condition' doesn't walk through the door of your practice. A patient with a problem to be solved does. The traditional 'topic-based' teaching programs are organised based upon a diagnosis as the start point. You begin with a diagnosis that you wish to study, and then lay out all of the information about that condition and how to recognise it clinically.

However, actual clinical practice works in the reverse. Your patients walk in with a complaint, which requires clinical problem solving to reach a diagnosis. So our online programs have been built that way from the ground up, using case-based exercises in problem solving.

Over a 10-year period, we have compiled an extensive cross-section of clinical cases from practice - literally what has walked through the door. Each online learning activity starts with a patient scenario, presented in a way that better simulates real clinical practice.

To progress through each activity involves methodically solving a clinical case just as you would each day. For example, if a child presented to you complaining of anterior hip pain - where do you start with your thinking, and how do you work your way through to a diagnosis?

We do not artificially arrange information in a disconnected way. For example, we don't think of 'imaging of the hip' and 'examination of the hip' as separate topics. Rather, we bring together all of the necessary information that is involved in solving a real case - just like you need to do in practice.

To solve your next case might require you to weave together all sorts of knowledge from different topic areas. For example, the appropriate knowledge base may include lumbar disc pathology, the neurological examination of the lower limbs, an understanding of fat-saturation MRI sequences to identify the most likely pain-producing lesion, best practice management of disc lesions, and how to effectively communicate your diagnosis to the patient's medical doctor.

Under the older educational model, this information would exist under different topic areas and be presented in a separate and disconnected way. Importantly, the powerful effect of bringing that knowledge together to solve a problem is not effectively realised.

In contrast, we weave all of that knowledge together into one learning activity, within the context of solving a clinical problem.

New information is most relevant when you need it to make a decision. As a clinician, your knowledge is organised and held together by clinical experiences. Patient encounters become the 'glue' that sticks data together into useful knowledge and practical skills.

Each learning activity that we design provides new knowledge within a clinical experience. During the coursework we insert the latest evidence and key clinical distinctions - just when you need it - as each key decision point arises along the way. This approach is the key to strengthening your clinical decision-making and maximizing your learning effectiveness.

CDI's advanced online clinical training has taken over 10,000 hours and over 2.5 million dollars to develop. Our challenge when creating online education was to maintain a high quality learning experience while moving to a web-based medium for delivery. The result is an online format that hugely increases both the cost-viability and time-viability of completing your annual CPD requirements, and achieving board certification. While the total education hours for board certification must include live training, most of the education hours can be now be completed online.

You can find out more about the Diplomate of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine's (DIANM) program here.

Together, all of these factors make CDI's Online Learning Programs a 'stand out' in terms of learning rigour, academic standards, convenience, and cost.