The Macy Foundation funded Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on Planning a Continuing Health Care Professional Education Institute is expected to be released sometime mid to late November.
The Alliance for Continuing Medical Education (the Alliance) announced a webcast on this report for December 9th.
According to the Alliance: A report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on recommendations for the development of a national inter-professional institute devoted to the continuing education of healthcare professionals is due to be released shortly as a result from the recommendations from the 2008 Macy Foundation report on “Continuing Education in the Health Professions: Improving Healthcare through Lifelong Learning.”
The purpose of establishing such an institute is to advance the science of CE by promoting the discovery and dissemination of more effective methods of educating health professionals over their professional lifetimes, by developing a research enterprise that encourages increased scientific study of CE, by developing mechanisms to assess research applications, by stimulating new approaches to both intra- and inter-professional CE, and by being independent and composed of individuals from the various health professions.
This is more than likely a report recommending a stimulus package for educators working on CE research. Though this is a somewhat laudable goal the Macy Foundation has made no bones about their goals in hiring the IOM ($428,177) to legitimize their Bermuda Conference. They were actively involved in the selection of panel members, fully funded the committee, and the opening meeting started with a presentation titled: Understanding the Committee’s Charge: A Discussion with the Sponsor – George Thibault, Josiah Macy Jr., Foundation. Other opening day activities included presentations on concurrent Macy funded Activities to Inform the CE Committee:
Dave Davis, Association of American Medical Colleges (~$300,000 Macy Funding) Introduce workshop to (1) review formal CE, (2) review a range of alternative interventions, (3) summarize the inter-professional education literature, and (4) review current knowledge in lifelong learning.
Eric Campbell, Institute for Health Policy, Harvard Medical School (~$150,000 Macy Funding) Introduce plan to (1) review what types of CME work best, (2) understand the amount of CME physicians need, (3) review current CME organizational structures, and (4) explore and model alternative CME payment methods.
Copies of the Macy Foundation Report were given out to all members of the committee at the beginning of the meeting with the Chairman stating that this is an important document and will serve as our guide in writing the IOM report.
The goals of the Macy Foundation Report were simple:
Eliminate Commercial Support of CME in Five Years
Eliminate all private providers of continuing medical education
Replacing the current accreditation system with a government controlled system
Because the report will be based on the Macy paper along with committee members including Katherine DeAngelis, Editor of JAMA who is against all involvement between industry and physicians, this report promises to be a rehash of old materials with the new cover of the IOM.
A background article of this report and other Macy Supported initiatives was published in May in the National Review titled: Conflicting Interests: The effort to push the private sector out of continuing medical education.
One interesting note that with the exception of the first meeting all subsequent meetings have been behind closed doors and not open to the public.
At one closed session in May, (which at the time of the meeting was listed on the IOM website as a closed meeting not open to the public), the IOM apparently held one open presentation that featured Mike Saxton the Senior Director of Medical Education at Pfizer sharing his “personal” views on CME funding.
Catherine Cleary, MD of Pfizer had previously testified at the open meeting last December as the only representative of the pharmaceutical industry.
There is also a webcast later in December on Macy Foundation funded initiative with the Association of Academic Medical Centers (AAMC) Recommendations from AAMC/AACN Lifelong Learning Consensus Conference
Overall this should be interesting, for more information on the webcast go to:
December 9, 2009
2:00 – 3:00 PM Easter Time
Planning a Continuing Health Care Professional Education Institute
Recommendations from the Institute of Medicine
This report describes recommendations for the development of a national inter-professional institute devoted to the continuing education of healthcare professionals.
Click here to register!
January 13, 2010
2:00 – 3:00 PM Eastern Time
Continuing Education in Nursing and Medicine: What Does the Future Look Like?
Recommendations from AAMC/AACN Lifelong Learning Consensus Conference
This report that will discuss recommendations for delivery and format of continuing education and the development of lifelong learning skills in health professionals the delivery.
Click here to register!