The Center for Business Intelligence (CBI) will be holding a Medical Education Forum entitled, “Improve Outcomes through Collaboration to Maximize the Quality of Patient Care.”
The forum, which will be held in Philadelphia on March 21-22, 2011, will provide a platform where industry continuing medical education (CME) professionals and CME providers can collaborate with one another to better the design and outcomes of CME programs. Industry and providers can work together to progress the way they teach physicians, demonstrate outcomes, and advocate in the community for CME activities. The program will offer participants the opportunity to:
- Collaborate with one another to help design effective learning programs for healthcare providers
- Address reporting, presentation, assessment and financial feasibility of outcomes
- Improve advocacy efforts internally and externally to combat the negative perception of CME in the community
- Choose between two breakout sessions addressing the needs of industry grantors and education providers
- Hear twelve perspectives from leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies
- Interact with and learn from speakers at ten different education provider companies
- Enjoy shared exhibit space and networking breaks with CBI’s Premier Forum on Training, Learning and Development
Agenda
During the first day of the forum, I will be giving the Opening Address, reflecting on the “State of Medical Education: CME and Healthcare Reform.” My opening remarks will touch on how the new Congress will handle issues like CME, both commercial and non-commercial. I will also discuss the changing landscape on Capitol Hill, up-to-date rules and regulations from the ACA and updates on:
- How the Sunshine Act affects the way medical education programs are managed
- The potential of how to optimize REMS by demonstrating support of medical education
- What role comparative effectiveness research has in developing CME content
- Where follow-on biologics will step in to increase the needed amount of CME
Another session during the forum that holds promise is the role of medical schools and universities in providing CME. To address this issue and to discuss pharma’s role in academic CME and understand how to avoid undue regulatory scrutiny, Victor Marrow, Ph.D., Executive Director for the Office of Funded Programs, CME at John Hopkins School of Medicine will explore:
- The meaning of the “Educational Grant”
- ACCME and the notion of “Safe Harbor”
- Conflict of interest
- Existing opportunities to limit pharma’s legal liability
Alicia Reese, Manager of Scientific Affairs at Endo Pharmaceuticals, will discuss the increasingly important need to understand the evolving role of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). She will explain why this group should be integrated into educational strategies and allotted for in CME budgets, and will focus on how CME providers can effectively assess and meet their educational needs in primary care.
Another presentation on the first day will look at “Outcomes-Based Design for Physician Training –The Key to Behavior Change in a Changing World.” This session will highlight emerging learner demographics and shows how adult learning principles and innovative technologies can support behavior change. Additionally, this session covers how to link outcomes to learning objectives and educational strategy in order to maximize behavior change. Participants apply their new knowledge via an interactive teaching case throughout the session.
There will also be a poster session that will showcases examples within the CME world that demonstrate either an outcome that enhanced the quality of patient care or an innovative strategy for effective advocacy. Other sessions that will offer valuable information for CME providers and stakeholders include:
- Global CME Environment — Determine Opportunities Abroad
- CME 2.0 — The Role of Emerging Technologies to Enhance the Learning Experience
- Overcome Challenges of Performance Improvement Programs— Interactive Breakout Discussions —
- Measurement and Metrics for Change in HCP Behavior
- The Role of the Patient in Medical Education
- Best Practices, the Value Proposition and Moving Forward
There will also be two breakout sessions. The first will be for Industry Grantors and will discuss “Strategic Grant Funding Decisions.” This industry-focused discussion will highlight key considerations in funding decisions and how to ensure quality from providers. It will also touch on systems to rank the most important factors in grant evaluation — needs assessment, educational design, cost and levels of outcomes or performance improvements promised. The session will identify:
- Best practices in assessing grant submissions
- Key elements of a grant review
- Insight into the supporting material provided with a grant submission
- provider outcome levels
- educational design
- historical success of program
Industry participants will also have the opportunity to attend a session regarding the “Best Practices in Communication with CME Providers.” This session will explain the risks and benefits of provider-supporter interactions and discuss various initiatives regarding provider-supporter dialogue.
The breakout session for CME providers will discuss the “Financial Feasibility of Outcomes.” This session will explore the staffing and resources needed to effectively compile, analyze and report outcomes data, understand the budget implications of the various outcomes assessment methodologies including PI-CME. It will also allow participants to:
- Formulate ideas on how to operationalize the higher levels of outcomes within your particular organization
- Understand how this process will help providers build stronger grant requests
Another session for CME providers will offer participants guidance and details on ways to effectively present educational outcomes to grantors to help them demonstrate importance of CME funding. It will also explore practical ways CME providers can improve outcome processes and observe concrete examples that can be implemented tomorrow.
Resources