Increasing physicians' antismoking influence by applying an inexpensive feedback technique.

Continuing medical education that ignores motivational and environmental determinants of continued skill use will have little impact. Physicians who were trained to give antismoking advice to patients did so effectively soon after training, but their performance deteriorated during the next nine months. A subsequent study showed that antismoking effectiveness is maintained for extended periods if advice-giving rates are monitored monthly and physicians receive immediate corrective feedback whenever their performance declines.