Veremu, MunasheDeakin, NaomiChauhan, Rohil VLantz, Justin MToumbas, GeorgiosTabrah, JuliaKumar, VishalZipser, Carl MPlener, JoshuaAmmendolia, CarloAnderson, David BDos Santos Rubio, Ellianne JTetreault, LindsayParnaik, RahulRodrigues-Pinto, RicardoOng'wen, Otieno MartinSarewitz, EllenSadler, IwanRoberts, TheresaLangridge, NeilSwait, GabrielleHadfield-Law, LisaDraper-Rodi, JerryWood, LianneStacpoole, SybilGanau, MarioBaig, ShehlaBateman, AntonyDemetriades, Andreas KPeul, Willem Cornelis WilcoDavies, Benjamin2026-03-312026-03-312026-03-24BMJ Open, ISSN: 2044-6055 (Print); 2044-6055 (Online), BMJ, 16(3), e107940-. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-1079402044-60552044-6055http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20841INTRODUCTION: Outcomes for degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) patients are limited by delayed and missed diagnoses, driven in part by poor professional awareness. Despite DCM being the most common cause of adult spinal cord injury, it remains under-recognised and undertaught in clinical education. Lessons from other common pathology like stroke and acute myocardial infarction highlight the potential of education to improve early diagnosis. This study will develop a professional education strategy to improve early DCM diagnosis. It will define key audiences and identify an effective delivery method, laying the groundwork for a sustained, targeted intervention. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study aims to define who needs to know about DCM, what they need to know and how they can learn it. This will be carried out in three phases: phase 1-who and what: to establish the target population and to define core competencies for the educational intervention; phase 2-how: to create and review the educational intervention; phase 3-evaluation: to test whether the framework is an improvement to existing strategies. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is in place from the University of Cambridge (HBREC.2024.24). Results from the study will be disseminated through scientific publication, conference presentation, blog posts and podcasts. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42023461838.This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Health EducationMedical Education & TrainingNeurologyNeurosurgery4203 Health Services and Systems42 Health SciencesPrevention4 Quality Education1103 Clinical Sciences1117 Public Health and Health Services1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences32 Biomedical and clinical sciences42 Health sciences52 PsychologyCervical VertebraeEarly DiagnosisHumansResearch DesignSpinal Cord DiseasesHumansCervical VertebraeSpinal Cord DiseasesEarly DiagnosisResearch DesignCervical VertebraeHumansSpinal Cord DiseasesEarly DiagnosisResearch DesignJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1136/bmjopen-2025-107940