Medical Education News

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.

We came across an article comparing Netflix to current advances in medical education. Specifically, according to the article found at medgadget.com [link], they were discussing the GIBLIB company's online streaming platform for medical education.  GIBLIB uses 360 degree virtual reality video content. 

"GIBLIB recently announced a partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to deliver the first ever Continuing Medical Education (CME) accredited course filmed exclusively in 360-degree virtual reality."

This article is very specific to this one company, and doubtless there are other companies doing similar work.  But it is always good to monitor what the competition is doing and to be prepared to respond. 

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. NAMEC believes that each of these elements should be acknowledged. NAMEC congratulates the 2018 award winners for Best Practices in CME.  The recipients were recognized at the NAMEC Annual Meeting, held during the ACEHP Conference January 23 – 26, 2019, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

NAMEC Best Practice in Enduring Material Educational Design: pmiCME for "Curriculum Learning through a ConnectED CME/CE Series"

NAMEC Best Practice in Learner Outcomes: Projects in Knowledge for "Rheumatoid Arthritis @Point of Care"

NAMEC Best Practice in Live Activity Educational Design: Paradigm Medical Communications for "Paving a Path to Relief of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Chronic Idiopathic Constipation: Live Patient Simulations Demonstrating Innovations in Diagnosis and Treatment"

NAMEC Best Practice in Innovative Educational Methods: CME Outfitters for "HBV is Not a Game: Or Is It? Optimizing Your Approach to HBV Management"

NAMEC Best Practice in Innovative Educational Methods: Global Education Group for "Advanced Trauma Training"

NAMEC Best Practice in Collaboration Among CME Stakeholders: Global Education Group for "Overactive Bladder: Adopting a Patient-Centered Approach to Improve Outcomes and Quality of Life—The OAB Learning Center"

NAMEC Brian P. Russell Exemplary CME Professional Award: Phil Talamo, CHCP

NAMEC appreciates all members and companies who submitted for consideration of these awards.  The 2019 Best Practices awards will be requested later this year and we encourage your company to become a member if there is a project you feel could be an award winner.

MIPS scores from 2017 are now publicly available. Anyone who looks these scores up can now see how well a particular physician/practice did.

What is MIPS? A quick reminder that MIPS stands for "Merit-based Incentive Payment System" - which streamlines into one payment program  Medicare Part B providers to a performance-based payment system which were formerly found in three different programs.

If a physician treating Medicare Part B patients did not participate in MIPS, their reimbursements are subject to a decreased rate.

An easy to use publicly available tool to find physician MIPS scores can be found here.