This month, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has been busy with a number of activities and announcements. Below is a summary of some of the events, activities, and other information regarding the CME industry and stakeholders contained in their March 2013 newsletter.
International Academy for CME/CPD Accreditation Leaders
The ACCME and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada have joined together to create the International Academy for CPD Accreditation. The purpose of the Academy is to provide an opportunity for interchange for leaders serving in continuing medical education (CME) and continuing professional development (CPD) accreditation systems and for those seeking to establish CME/CPD accreditation systems.
The Academy aims to support networking, facilitate mentoring, promote innovation, and enhance the development and implementation of CME/CPD accreditation systems internationally. Accreditation leaders will have the opportunity to learn about each other’s values, principles, and metrics; explore educational and ethical accreditation standards; and to foster evaluations to assess the effect of CME/CPD accreditation systems on physician learning, competence, health care team performance, and health care outcomes.
The Academy has invited accreditation leaders from around the world to join. Currently, the Academy includes members from the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, and Australasia. The inaugural meeting of the Academy will be held via webinar on May 23.
ACCME Invited to Join World Federation of Medical Education Standards Revision Task Force
The World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) has invited the ACCME to participate in the revision of its standards for postgraduate medical education and continuing professional development. Murray Kopelow, MD, ACCME President and CEO, will serve on an international task force to prepare the draft revision.
WFME’s mission is to strive for better health care for all people. Its primary objective is to enhance the quality of medical education worldwide, through the promotion of the highest scientific and ethical standards in medical education. The ACCME said it is pleased to participate in the initiative as part of its commitment to supporting collaboration within the global CME community.
ACCME Workshop Includes Public Health Imperatives Forum
The ACCME has added a new session to its 2013 CME as a Bridge to Quality™ Accreditation Workshop, which is scheduled for April 24-26 in Chicago. The two-part “Public Health Imperatives Forum” will feature representatives from several federal government agencies. The following agencies have accepted our invitation to participate: the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). In the first part, the government representatives will discuss how CME can be a strategic partner in addressing public health priorities. A breakout session will follow, giving participants the opportunity to engage directly with federal representatives about collaboration opportunities to address public health priorities.
New Videos: How CME Can Support Health Care Professionals’ Continuing Professional Development
In three new videos, Murray Kopelow, MD, ACCME President and CEO, discusses the role of CME as a strategic asset to health care professionals’ continuing professional development.
- Accredited Continuing Medical Education as an Educational Home to Support Continuing Professional Development
- Can your CME Program support accredited continuing education for the health care team?
- What are the biggest misconceptions that physicians may have about CME?
Additional Compliance Examples Posted for Accreditation with Commendation Criteria
The ACCME added new examples of compliance with the criteria for achieving Accreditation with Commendation to the Examples of Compliance and Noncompliance: Findings Based on the ACCME Accreditation Criteria. Here is the list of new examples.
- Criterion 16: Compliance Examples 10–26
- Criterion 17: Compliance Examples 12–23
- Criterion 18: Compliance Examples 10–19
- Criterion 19: Compliance Examples 10–16
- Criterion 20: Compliance Examples 10–22
- Criterion 21: Compliance Examples 11–23
- Criterion 22: Compliance Examples 8–14
The Examples of Compliance and Noncompliance: Findings Based on the ACCME Accreditation Criteria enables providers and CME stakeholders to learn from each other and to understand how the ACCME determines compliance and noncompliance with its requirements. Examples of compliance and noncompliance with each of the Accreditation Criteria, drawn from the accreditation review process, are included. The ACCME created a PDF of the Examples, with the new examples highlighted.
AMA Selects 31 Medical Education Proposal to Continue Next Phase in $10 Million Initiative
As we noted back in February, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced a $10 million competitive grant initiative to attract bold, innovative projects to transform the way medical schools train future physicians. Consequently, the AMA announced in late March that it had selected 31 innovative proposals from the initial pool of 119 applicants to move forward in the AM’s $10 million Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative aimed at transforming the way future physicians are trained.
“More than 80 percent of U.S. medical schools submitted brief letters of intent outlining their ideas to redesign medical education – an outstanding response that demonstrates medical schools are ready and willing to implement bold, transformative and innovative ideas,” said AMA President Jeremy A. Lazarus, M.D. “We’ve narrowed these initial applications down to 31 exciting ideas, and we look forward to reviewing the full proposals in the coming months to find the ones that can best align with the changing needs of our health care system.”
The schools selected will develop a more comprehensive proposal outlining the specifics of their innovations and must submit their full proposals by May 15. The AMA, with the help of a national advisory panel, will select 8-10 grant awardees to be announced in June at the AMA’s semi-annual policymaking meeting in Chicago.
Performance Improvement CME Improves ADHD Clinical Outcomes
At the recent 2013 Alliance for CE in the Health Professions Conference, CME research was presented on a performance improvement (PI) CME activity designed to improve primary care providers diagnosis and management of adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The target audience was HCPs in primary care. The activity followed the American Medical Association’s 3-stage methodology for PI CME.
In Stages A and C, the pre-assessment stage and post-assessment stage, participants evaluated their practices with respect to performance measures to diagnose and treat adults with ADHD. They completed a self-assessment survey, answered questions from chart reviews of adult patients with ADHD in their practice, and selected one or more Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) to implement in their practice to improve care given to adults with ADHD.
In Stage B, the action stage, participants were supplied with educational material (National Association of Continuing Education Adult ADHD Toolkit) designed to inform them about caring for adults with ADHD and to help them implement their chosen QIP(s). Performance change was measured by comparing data sets from their self-assessment surveys and patient chart reviews obtained at Stages A and C.
A total of 92 participants completed the self-assessment surveys and 926 chart reviews prior to and after Stage B. Analysis of the self-assessment survey data gathered indicated that participants more frequently used the performance measures and that they reported feeling more confident in evaluating and treating adults with ADHD at Stage C than they did in Stage A. As a result of the PI CME intervention, medium to large positive effect sizes were found in participants’ utilization of the measures and their confidence in applying the measures with study patients.
With respect to practice behavior as indicated in the chart reviews, compared to Stage A, participants who completed the PI CME activity were significantly more likely (P < .001) to execute comprehensive initial assessments (91% vs. 97%) and use rating scales (71% vs. 90%) to evaluate adults with ADHD in their practice during Stage C. Also, more participants confirmed symptom severity using corroborating evidence, recommended pharmacologic and psychosocial treatments, and provided follow-up after establishing a treatment plan.
Based on these findings, this study concluded that the participants of the PI CME activity often selected more than one QIP to implement in their practice, made improvements across key performance measures that would serve to enhance their practice and improve clinical outcomes for their adult patients with ADHD, and reported increased confidence in providing care to adults with ADHD. The data derived from the activity, combined with participants’ comments about the value of the educational materials and the instructional format used, validated the educational effectiveness of this 3-stage performance improvement mode of instruction.