An AAFP blog post titled "How Much Will This Cost, Doc?" covers a primary care physician's experience at a CME event where she describes feeling frustrated in not being able to use the knowledge gained:

But if continuing medical education is supposed to help us help our patients, is it fair to ask that the mission of CME evolves to include figuring out how to help our patients afford the amazing treatments we learn about?

Read the entire article here.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) released Learning Together: Engaging Patients as Partners in Accredited Continuing Medical Education — Report from the ACCME 2019 Meeting. The report offers educators strategies and tips for engaging patients as partners in planning and teaching continuing medical education (CME). Through their participation, patients can increase the meaning, relevance, and effectiveness of CME and contribute to improving care for patients and communities.

Highlights from Learning Together

The report summarizes the Learning Together track held at the ACCME 2019 Annual Meeting, including strategies for designing patient-centered research, collaborating with patients in CME, and faculty development for patients and educators. Patient-partners participated in the Learning Together track as planners and faculty, and their perspective is woven throughout the report.

Learning Together: Engaging Patients as Partners in Accredited Continuing Medical Education includes:

• Reflections from a patient-partner
• Tips for developing a patient inclusion action plan
• Case study: Building a patient-partner continuing education planning committee
• Patient-partner readiness checklist
• Seven key recommendations
  

Coming Soon

An online course, “Learning Together with Patient-Partners in CME,” will be available soon on the ACCME website. Using a narrative case study, the course explores how patient-partners contribute to CME and provides strategies for integrating patient-partners into the planning and delivery of CME.

Rewarding Patient Engagement in CME

The Learning Together initiative builds on ACCME’s efforts to support the inclusion of patients in CME for clinicians and teams. In its Menu of Criteria for Accreditation with Commendation, the ACCME includes a criterion that recognizes accredited organizations that incorporate patients as planners and faculty in educational programming. This criterion is included because accredited CME is enhanced when it incorporates the interests of the people who are served by the healthcare system.

Leadership Comments

“As a patient advocate, I have encouraged patient involvement in as many areas as possible, including medical education and research. This report will help CME providers take that first step forward and do what they can today to engage patient-partners in CME. I am so proud of the work we’ve done together, and I look forward to seeing where we go from here."—Melissa Hicks, Patient-Partner, ACCME; Stanford Medicine X; Member, Advisory Panel for Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science, PCORI

"We celebrate the participation of our patient-partners in our Learning Together initiative. By sharing their expertise and perspectives, they make invaluable contributions to our community of educators. In my experience as a clinician, educator, and learner, I’ve found that patients can be our best teachers. Patient inclusion in CME can engage clinicians’ hearts as well as minds and reinforce the reasons why our work matters. Together we can create a CME community that not only aims to support clinicians in delivering optimal healthcare for all—but strives toward that goal with patients as partners." —Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, ACCME 

Download the report here: www.accme.org/learning-together

More Resources

• Patient Involvement in CME: This webpage includes tips and tools about including patients as planners and faculty in education for clinicians and teams

• Coffee with Graham: in this podcast, Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, ACCME, discusses ways that educators can engage patients in CME.

PCORI Award

Learning Together: Engaging Patients in Professional Development of Physicians and Healthcare Teams,” is part of a portfolio of projects that PCORI has funded to help develop a community of patients and other stakeholders equipped to participate as partners in comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) and disseminate PCORI-funded study results.  Through the Engagement Award Program, PCORI is creating an expansive network of individuals, communities and organizations interested in and able to participate in, share, and use patient-centered CER.

The ACCME project and the other projects approved for funding by the PCORI Engagement Award Program were selected through a highly competitive review process in which applications were assessed for their ability to meet PCORI’s engagement goals and objectives, as well as program criteria.

PCORI

PCORI is an independent, nonprofit organization authorized by Congress in 2010 to fund comparative effectiveness research that will provide patients, their caregivers, and clinicians with the evidence needed to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions. PCORI is committed to seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work.

ACCME

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, responsible for accrediting organizations that offer continuing medical education (CME) and for recognizing state medical societies as accreditors of local CME programs. The ACCME is a cofounder of Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™.

The ACCME sets standards for CME that reflect the values of the educator community and aim to accelerate learning, inspire change, and champion improvement in healthcare. These standards ensure that accredited CME is designed to be relevant to clinicians’ needs, evidence-based, evaluated for its effectiveness, and independent of commercial influence. Through participation in accredited CME, clinicians and teams drive improvement in their practice and optimize the care, health, and wellness of their patients.

Accredited CME facilitates engagement with physicians and healthcare teams where they live, learn, and work. There are approximately 1,700 accredited CME providers within the ACCME System, across the country and internationally, representing a range of organizations including medical schools, hospitals/health systems, government/military agencies, specialty societies, and insurance/managed-care companies. Accredited providers offer about 180,000 activities each year, comprising more than one million hours of instruction and including more than 36 million interactions with physicians and other healthcare professionals.

For more information, visit www.accme.org. 

"Our diets are killing us and doctors aren't trained to help" is the title of an opinion piece that appeared recently on The Hill. 

...by helping physicians understand the connection between food and health, we can produce better individual patient outcomes, improve population health, and change our nation’s health-care landscape for the better.

The authors claim the entire spectrum of medical education fails to address the links between the food we eat and the health problems of Americans. View the article here.

The following is an ACCME press release we are sharing for NAMEC members or visitors that may be interested in furthering this message.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME^®) is seeking nominees interested in serving as one of two public directors on its 20-member Board of Directors. ACCME's mission is to assure and advance quality learning for healthcare professionals that drives improvements in patient care. The ACCME fulfills its mission through a voluntary self-regulated system for accrediting CME providers and a peer-review process responsive to changes in medical education and the health care delivery system.

In addition to two public directors, the ACCME Board is composed of two nominees from each of ACCME’s seven member organizations (listed below), two directors affiliated with ACCME Recognized Accreditors (state/territory medical societies approved as accreditors for local organizations offering CME), and two non-voting representatives from the government. The ACCME member organizations are the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States.

ACCME Expectations of Directors

Directors representing the public have the same rights and responsibilities as all directors. They are full voting members of the Board of ACCME. It is a director’s duty to administer the corporate affairs for the benefit of the ACCME, and it is expected that each director acts upon an informed basis, in good faith, and in the honest belief that the action was taken in the best interest of the ACCME.

Because the ACCME believes strongly that its public directors bring an important perspective to the work of our Board, they are charged with monitoring all Board and committee discussions to facilitate the identification of potential conflicts of interest that might arise. In addition, the senior public member serves as chair of the compensation committee.

Time Commitments

Time commitments include participation in three (1½ day) Board meetings per year and some Board committee or task force work between meetings, usually via conference call or email.

Eligibility

Please consider forwarding the name(s) of individual(s) who you think might serve the ACCME well. According to the Protocol for the Selection of the Public Representative to the ACCME:

The nominee should by virtue of education and public service possess special qualifications for bringing a “public” perspective to the process of evaluating programs of continuing medical education. The nominee might be qualified, for example, by experience as a hospital trustee, trustee of a health delivery system, a former government official in a role related to health or health education, a university administrator, a member of the news media with a particular expertise in health education or science.

In order to ensure the requisite impartiality to represent the public at large, members of the medical profession, persons otherwise eligible for selection as professional members, and anyone else who might be considered as sharing in the special interests of institutions or organizations being evaluated, shall be ineligible for service as public members.

Deadline

Nominations must be received by the ACCME no later than May 1, 2020. Nominations should include a curriculum vitae and a brief letter of nomination, and should be emailed to dpayne@accme.org.

Questions

Questions may be directed to ACCME’s Manager of Governance and External Relations, Debbie Payne, MA, CAE, at dpayne@accme.org.

Media inquiries

Tamar Hosansky
312-245-4066
thosansky@accme.org

Other inquiries

info@accme.org 

ACCME

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME^®) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, responsible for accrediting organizations that offer continuing medical education (CME) and for recognizing state medical societies as accreditors of local CME programs. The ACCME is a cofounder of Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™. 

The ACCME sets standards for CME that reflect the values of the educator community and aim to accelerate learning, inspire change, and champion improvement in healthcare. These standards ensure that accredited CME is designed to be relevant to clinicians’ needs, evidence-based, evaluated for its effectiveness, and independent of commercial influence. Through participation in accredited CME, clinicians and teams drive improvement in their practice and optimize the care, health, and wellness of their patients. 

Accredited CME facilitates engagement with physicians and healthcare teams where they live, learn, and work. There are approximately 1,700 accredited CME providers within the ACCME System, across the country and internationally, representing a range of organizations including medical schools, hospitals/health systems, government/military agencies, specialty societies, and insurance/managed-care companies. Accredited providers offer about 180,000 activities each year, comprising more than one million hours of instruction and including more than 36 million interactions with physicians and other healthcare professionals. 

Two recent news articles may spark your interest:

First, "California to mandate implicit bias training as part of continuing medical education".  A bill passed September 12th, and was later signed by the Governor, calling for this mandatory bias training for physicians.  Continued education for physicians, surgeons, nurses and physician assistants must include courses on implicit bias. The bill will require the Board of Registered Nursing and the Physician Assistant Board to adopt regulations requiring implicit bias training by January 1, 2022.  The text of the bill can be found online.

Another topic of interest is Maintenance of Certification (MOC).  Medical Economics covered a recap of much of the controversy surrounding this issue including MOC's relationship with CME and ABIM changes to try to appease concerns. Physician groups have raised over $290,000 to fund lawsuits against certain components of MOC.  Link to the article.

October 21, 2019

Dear NAMEC Colleagues:

The NAMEC Awards Committee will begin accepting nominations for the 15th Annual NAMEC Best Practice Awards on Monday, October 28th. NAMEC encourages all member organizations to submit a nomination in each of the competitive categories. Criteria and nomination processes are included below.

This year NAMEC will recognize outstanding achievement in the following categories:

• Best Practice in Enduring Material Educational Design
• Best Practice in Live Activity Educational Design
• Best Practice in CME Outside of the USA (Live or Enduring)
• Best Practice in Collaboration Among CME Stakeholders
• Best Practice in Learner Outcomes
• Best Practice in Innovative Educational Methods
• Brian P. Russell Exemplary CME Professional Award
  

CME is an industry rooted in change, a profession that calls upon our abilities to recognize and address new challenges. It requires us to utilize our intellect, our diligence, and our creativity. We believe that each of these elements should be acknowledged.

All nominations should be received no later than 11:59 PM EST on Friday, December 6, 2019. Please send your recommendations to NAMEC at kboyce@appliedcme.com.

Recipients will have the opportunity to discuss their activities during the NAMEC Annual Meeting, to be held during the ACEHP Conference in San Francisco, California January 8-11, 2020. The date and time for the Awards ceremony will be announced at a later date.

If you have questions about the awards contact Kurt Boyce at kboyce@appliedcme.com or Rich Keenan at rkeenan@achlcme.org.

Thank you for your continued support of NAMEC.

Best Regards,

NAMEC Awards Committee

Submission Forms and Additional Information:

2019 NAMEC Awards Cover Sheet.pdf

2019 NAMEC Awards Cover Sheet.doc

2019 Awards Submission Process Document.pdf

2019 Awards Submission Process Document.doc

A new article has been published titled "Massive open online courses (MOOCs) for continuing medical education – why and how?".  The abstract text can be found below.

Abstract: Continuing medical education (CME) is meant to not only improve clinicians’ knowledge and skills but also lead to better patient care processes and outcomes. The delivery of CME should be able to encourage the health providers to accept new evidence-based practices, and discard or discontinue less effective care. However, continuing use of expensive yet least effective and inappropriate tools and techniques predominates for CME delivery. Hence, the evidence shows a disconnect between evidence-based recommendations and real-world practice – borne out by less than optimal patient outcomes or treatment targets not being met especially in low- to middle-income countries. There is an ethical and professional obligation on CME-providers and decision-makers to safeguard that CME interventions are appraised not only for their quality and effectiveness but also for cost-effectiveness. The process of learning needs to be engaging, convenient, user-friendly and of minimal cost, especially where it is most needed. Today’s technology permits these characteristics to be integrated, along with further enhancement of the engagement process. We review the literature on the mechanics of CME learning that utilizes today’s technology tools and propose a framework for more engaging, efficient and cost-effective approach that implements massive open online courses for CME, adapted for the twenty-first century.

If you would like to see the entire article it can be found here.

I was eager to share observations in advance of October’s Digital Transformation EXPO Europe 2019 about technology and how it has revolutionized the way people and companies operate.

It is an understatement to say technology has transformed the world as we know it. Smart organizations remain curious about finding new ways to leverage technology to drive results both internally and externally.

These technological-driven changes have significantly altered perceptions and expectations of both the “work experience” and the “customer experience.” This evolution has brought us to the cusp of new experiences supported by new and emerging technologies. With this shift, organizations must contemplate what technologies will have the most significant impact on both their businesses and their teams. Then, they must determine how to use these technologies to elevate enterprise communication effectively and drive results.

The emergence of the mobile workforce has required organizations to revisit their structures and implement new systems. These systems must support working anytime and from anywhere as mobile working is more the norm than the exception. And employees need to collaborate with their teams no matter where they are.

Concurrently, advanced solutions, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, mobile interactions and live streaming, are helping to elevate communication and digital interactions to be more intelligent, seamless and even more human. This is particularly important for customer-facing implementations. Customers want communication to be immediate and contextual. They will judge businesses on their inability to meet this golden rule.

Technology is no longer a buzzword: By tapping into the latest technology, organizations can more efficiently and more confidently navigate the ever-expanding number of digital channels and touch points while creating contextual and enjoyable experiences for everyone.

Article submitted by Mark Robert, PGi’s CMO.

View additional PGi Materials on Webcasts, Meetings, Event Services, Webinars, and VRC

Contact PGi about NAMEC member pricing.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has invited NAMEC members to share with your colleagues how your CME Program is transforming practice and care at the ACCME 2020 Meeting. A Call for Proposals is open and accepting the following submission types:

·       Share Your CME Story

·       Inspire & Teach: Propose a Session

·       CME Effectiveness & Best Practices: Engaging in CME Research

Go to www.accmemeeting.org for more information, including a downloadable ACCME 2020 Meeting Call for Proposals Information Sheet with the rules and details for submission, as well as a recording of the ACCME’s July 10th Informational Webinar.  

The deadline for submissions is midnight on Friday, September 13, 2019.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) is preparing a new assessment option as part of their maintenance of certification (MOC) process. 

The new option will allow physicians to take more frequent but shorter tests online.  The ABIM is terming this the "longitudinal assessment option for Maintenance of Certification (MOC)". 

The goal of this change is to respond to feedback from physicians that the MOC process be more flexible with more choices to retain the certification.  The traditional (aka long-form) assessment remains an option. 

Defined by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) as "Longitudinal assessment draws on the principles of adult learning combined with modern technology to promote learning, retention, and transfer of information. These approaches involve administering shorter assessments of specific content, such as medical knowledge, repeatedly over a period of time. Through a recurring examination process, concepts and information are reinforced so that knowledge is retained and accumulated gradually. Knowledge gained in this fashion can be more readily retrieved and applied to various situations."

Fiercehealthcare.com reports:

"The MOC process has been controversial among doctors. One survey last year found 65% of physicians said MOC adds no clinical value to the practice of medicine. Almost 55% of respondents said they want to see those controversial MOC requirements revoked, while 48.5% said they would prefer more continuing medical education hours to replace the current MOC recertification process."

You can view ABIM's letter to members here that appears to be their attempt to counter this dissatisfaction.