This comparison is really a choice between two units of learning. BMJ Learning's unit is the module: peer-reviewed, expert-written, sequenced to teach a topic properly from the front. iatroX's unit is the question: adaptive, assessed, sequenced to your own performance and forgetting. Most doctors instinctively pick the format they enjoy; the better move is understanding what each unit is for, because the two turn out to be complementary to the point of being designed for each other.
What BMJ Learning is
Hundreds of interactive e-learning modules across the specialties, peer-reviewed and written by experts from BMJ's network, ranging from fifteen-minute clinical scenarios to substantial deep-dives, each producing a CPD certificate stating learning objectives and time. Access is free for BMA members and widely available through institutions. Its distinctive strengths: systematic teaching, and breadth beyond the strictly clinical, communication, patient safety, quality improvement, ethics, leadership, territory no question bank covers and every appraisal portfolio eventually needs. We reviewed it in depth for trainees at /blog/bmj-learning-review-2026-gp-trainee.
What iatroX is
An adaptive assessment platform: curated question banks across a doctor's scope, spaced repetition scheduling the returns, a Socratic Tutor interrogating every miss against guidance cited directly into NICE, CKS, SIGN and SmPC sources, askiatroX for the working day's clinical questions, and My CPD converting each session into an appraisal-ready record of topic, time, performance, correction and reflection. Free tier includes askiatroX and selected full banks; the complete platform is £29 monthly or £99 annually (last checked August 2026).
Predetermined curricula versus adaptive selection
A module's sequence is set by its author, which is exactly right for learning something properly the first time or after major guideline change: the expert decides what you need in what order. Adaptive selection inverts the authority: your performance decides, which is exactly right for maintenance, because the system spends your scarce minutes on the topics you personally are losing rather than the ones the author expected an average reader to need. Neither logic substitutes for the other; teaching and maintenance are different jobs.
Completion certificates versus assessed performance
A BMJ Learning certificate is the strong end of the participation class: named provider, stated objectives, stated time, peer-reviewed content, a document appraisers take seriously. An iatroX record belongs to the assessed class: what you scored, what specifically you got wrong, what the misconception was, and whether the correction held at re-test. The first proves credible learning activity; the second proves learning. Appraisal is happiest seeing both, and notably each format's weakness is precisely the other's strength.
Time commitment
Modules ask for continuous blocks, fifteen minutes to over an hour, best given the attention they are built for. Adaptive questions ask for fragments: five to fifteen minutes, repeatedly, with the scheduling automated. In practice this maps onto a working week naturally: modules for the protected lunchtime or the quiet evening, question sessions for the gaps, which is also roughly the split between learning new territory and holding existing ground.
Why they work particularly well together
The pairing has a clean mechanism. A module teaches; a themed question set a week later measures what survived contact with your memory; the Tutor repairs what did not; spaced repetition re-tests the repair. Run that loop and the module's certificate gains an assessment trail, converting "completed the heart failure module" into "completed the module, retained 78 percent at one week, corrected the two gaps, verified at re-test", which is about as strong as a single CPD entry gets. In the other direction, when the question bank keeps exposing a genuinely weak area, that is the signal to stop patching with explanations and take the relevant module properly: assessment finding the need, teaching meeting it.
Export to BMJ Portfolio
Since July 2026 the pairing has a shared home: BMJ Portfolio, free for all healthcare professionals, tracks BMJ Learning completions automatically and stores external CPD from any source, iatroX records included, with AI-supported reflection and direct export toward FourteenFish for GPs. Module certificates arriving automatically, assessed records filed beside them, one free portfolio holding both classes of evidence: the practical objection to running the pair has quietly disappeared.
Verdict
Not modules or adaptive questions: modules for teaching and breadth, adaptive questions for maintenance and proof, the loop between them for evidence that stands out at appraisal. If budget forces a choice, take whichever your portfolio currently lacks; most portfolios are long on certificates and short on assessment, which tells you where the marginal pound goes.
Frequently asked questions
I only have two hours a week; how do I split them?
Roughly one module to three question sessions: one protected half-hour for a module or part-module, and the rest in ten-to-fifteen-minute adaptive sets with Tutor follow-up. Maintenance needs more frequency than teaching, and the split mirrors that.
Do BMJ Learning certificates need a question-set follow-up every time?
No; reserve the full loop for modules in territory you actually practise, where retention matters and the assessed record earns its keep. Broadening modules, ethics, leadership, communication, stand well on certificate plus reflection alone.
Which comes first for a doctor returning after a career break?
Modules first, assessment close behind: structured teaching rebuilds the frame, and early adaptive sets show honestly where the frame still has gaps, which beats discovering them in clinic. The returning-to-practice period is exactly when the assessed evidence class is worth the most, to you and to your responsible officer.