Medical Education News

The following information is being shared from the ACCME's web site at http://accme.org/events/ACCME2020

ACCME 2020 Meeting

May 6-8, 2020
Pre-conference sessions on May 5

Hilton Chicago
720 S Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60605

Call for Proposals

The ACCME 2020 Meeting Call for Proposals is now open and ready for your submissions!

We want to hear from you during the ACCME 2020 Meeting! Share how your CME Program is transforming care with your colleagues at the meeting. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm CT, Friday, September 13, 2019. Proposals will be accepted in the following three (3) categories:

1. Share Your CME Story – You have a CME story to share! How are you changing practice and healthcare through accredited CME? What challenges have you overcome? What have you learned? What inspires you and brings meaning to your work as an educator? Selected CME Stories will be shared in the meeting app for review and engagement by other ACCME 2020 participants. The stories that have the most engagement during the meeting will receive special recognition at the meeting.

   Click here to submit one or more CME Stories
    

2. Inspire & Teach: Propose a Session – Share your expertise and experience as an educational leader. Submit your proposal for an educational session and help to improve the skills and performance of your colleagues. Selected proposals will be featured as breakout sessions at the ACCME 2020 Meeting. Additionally, session facilitators (up to two per session) will receive a 30% discount on meeting registration.

   Click here to submit your proposed breakout session.
    

3. CME Effectiveness & Best Practices: Engaging in CME Research – Share your scholarship! What makes CME effective or ineffective in catalyzing learner change and healthcare improvement? Help mentor your colleagues as we pursue together critical questions about improving CME. Selected research project submissions will display a poster of their work throughout the ACCME 2020 Meeting and will present a short oral summary of their project during a Research Exchange session. The primary author for each selected proposal will receive a 20% discount on registration for the ACCME 2020 Meeting.

   Click here to submit your CME research project.

You are welcome to submit multiple proposals in any or all of the above categories.

Call for Proposals Resources

• Download this Information Sheet with the rules and details for submission.
• Listen to a recording of the July 10th Informational Webinar, which includes some helpful tips from colleagues who had submissions selected for the ACCME 2019 Meeting.
• If you need further assistance, contact info@accme.org

In Person

Educational

Public

CME Outfitters, a leading international provider for continuing medical education and member of NAMEC, is offering a free continuing medical education course entitled “Championing Change: Addressing Addiction in our Communities.” 

This course is a partnership between CME Outfitters and renowned addiction psychiatrist Dr. Mark Gold as well as Addiction Policy Forum founder and president Jessica Hulsey Nickel.

You can read more about this partnership at the following news release.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act 19-115, “An Act Concerning Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Training and Best Practices” (PA 19-115).

According to The National Law Review, "This legislation modifies the continuing medical education (CME) requirements for Connecticut-licensed physicians and the continuing education (CE) requirements for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). Currently, during each CME period, physicians are required to complete at least one hour of CME relating to behavioral health. Similarly, APRNs are required to complete at least two hours of CE on mental health conditions common to veterans and their families."

See full article at NatLawReview.com

Further: "PA 19-115 allows physicians to complete their behavioral health training by receiving at least two hours in training regarding diagnosing and treating cognitive conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and related cognitive impairments, or mental health conditions, including those common to veterans. This legislation also permits APRNs to receive two or more hours of training toward their CE requirements on topics related to diagnosing and treating cognitive or mental health conditions, including Alzheimer’s and related cognitive impairments."

The law was signed on July 1, 2019,  and becomes effective January 1, 2020.

2020 will bring a new fee structure from the ACCME for their annual accreditation fee.  This is in response to suggestions from the CME community to distribute fees among programs of different sizes.

There will be four tiers of fees in the new structure.  Tier 1 will be the smaller programs, up to Tier 4 being the largest.  Accredited programs will provide the average activities per year and average learner interactions per year and the largest tier in which you fall will determine the fees your program will pay.  The fees will range from Tier 1 at $5,900 per year up to $10,000 per year at Tier 4.  Tier 2 is $6,500 per year and Tier 3 will be $7,500 per year.

Data is calculated from the Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) from 2016-2018.

This new fee structure does NOT impact other fees such as extensions, pre-applications and initial accreditation. 

According to the ACCME, "Mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the hospital and health system sector, mean that large organizations consolidate the accreditation of multiple smaller CME programs under one umbrella. This trend is reducing the number of providers and driving greater size disparity among providers."

In addition, "We [the ACCME] rely on annual accreditation fees as our major source (69 percent) of yearly revenue. We operate with a closely balanced, conservative budget, using our revenues to achieve our strategic goals. After careful deliberations and analysis of our data, the ACCME executive leadership and Board of Directors determined that implementing a tiered accreditation fee structure is necessary to allow us to continue to fulfill our strategic responsibilities."

More information about this change can be found online at http://accme.org/highlights/accme-implements-new-tiered-structure-for-annual-accreditation-fee.

NAMEC members can discuss this at our online forum.

The American Hospital Association's Physician Alliance has issued a new report with recommendations for how continuing medical education improvements can be made to increase value to hospitals.

"Hospitals account for a large proportion of the CME-granting programs with about 35 percent of the activities and 38 percent of the credit hours offered in 2013."

“CME allows physicians to reach their full potential both as caregivers and leaders of the health care field,” said AHA Senior Vice President John Combes, MD. “We have an opportunity to use CME strategically to achieve the goals not only of individual physicians but the entire delivery system to meet the needs of the patients and communities we serve.”

Additional notes from the report include the following steps to increase value:

• Hospital associations should share best practices
• Explore partnerships with medical societies and others to increase awareness of CME
• Hospitals and health systems should facilitate greater communication between the CME professionals, physician leadership, and organization leadership to improve CME offerings. Organizations should develop physician champions to drive engagement of the staff, and encourage the use of data from community health assessments to spur education on population health issues.  
• The accreditation community should review accreditation standards for areas of improvement and simplification. For example, accrediting bodies should consider accreditation for smaller group projects that address current physician work. Hospital leaders also recommended using technology to streamline the paperwork burden in meeting accreditation requirements.
• Finally, as health care delivery is changing, so to must the educational system. Greater use of performance-based CME, moving away from time-based activities, and increasing the diversity in accredited programs to adapt to the changing environment should all be considered.

The full report can be accessed at the following link:

AHA Report on Continuing Medical Education

The American Medical Association (AMA) has launched the AMA Ed Hub to try to assist physicians in finding, tracking, and reporting CME credits.  AMA Ed Hub currently has the capability to automatically report earned CME credits to select medical licensing boards including the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Pediatrics, the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners and the North Carolina Medical Board. Others are expected to be added.  You can read more about the platform here.

The State of Maine is proposing limiting physician honorarium for speaking, including speaking at accredited CME Events to $250.00.  You can join the CME Coalition and submit comments that accredited education should be exempted from the final regulation.  Maine is a very rural state, there is no way a physician will take one to two days out of their work to educate Maine doctors for $250.  More information about the CME Coalition's efforts in this area can be found on their web site.

A new webinar is available with updates to the Outcomes Standardization Project.

You can review the description of the Outcomes Standardization Project found in an earlier post, but basically it is a project to develop standard terms and definitions in the profession of continuing medical education/continuing education.  Terms that definitions have been made available include Participant, Learner, Intended Reach, Learning Actions, Completion Rate, Assessment, Evaluation, and more. 

The latest webinar with updates on the project for CME professionals can be viewed below.

How can you measure the impact of a faculty development  program at your organization?

Important terms: Faculty; Faculty development program; Healthcare institutions; Medical and allied health faculty; Personal development

What is faculty development?

Faculty development is an organized, goal-directed process to achieve career progression and growth. Inherent in this process is the acquisition of skills that enable one to contribute in a meaningful way to the advancement of a field of interest, whether educational, operational, or scientific. The process requires attention to technical skills, personal attributes, and explicit goals. Supportive mentorship is optimal. This document outlines important concepts and identifies helpful resources for academic faculty members. [source]

Review a recently published research study:

The impact and effectiveness of faculty development program in fostering the faculty's knowledge, skills, and professional competence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background:

Faculty vitality is the main ingredient to enhance professional education and competence. Enriching the faculty vitality in key domains of teaching, assessing, research, professionalism, and administration is perceived to improve educational environment significantly and enhances the academic performance of learners. Faculty development program (FDP) has been considered as a stand-alone educational pedagogy in fostering knowledge and professional skills of faculty. However, few studies have provided objective reports about the impact of such programs in a healthcare system.

Conclusion:

This article reiterates the incorporation of FDPs in all healthcare institutions for improving the academic performance of faculty with resultant enrichment of learners' knowledge and skills.

Link to more information.

A second recent study on this topic:

Is faculty development critical to enhance teaching effectiveness?

Faculty development programs will meet the shortage of medical teachers and groom faculty for leadership roles to provide solutions for achieving better standards of health for the population. This paper provides information on and insights into faculty development that may be useful to medical schools in designing professional growth opportunities for their faculty.

Link to more information.

Additional information on enhancing faculty development:

• AAFP's CME Faculty Resource Center - link
• ACCME's Faculty Development List of Resources - link

View this video about Innovations in Faculty Development