Joslin Diabetes Center Launches Commercially Supported Performance Improvement CME Program

This week, the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, launched a landmark Performance Improvement Continuing Medical Education (PI CME) research initiative to establish accuracy and predictive value of current assessment methodologies for CME in order to inform ongoing efforts to improve diabetes care.

Joslin Diabetes Center is the “world’s preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization.”  Founded in 1898 by Elliott P. Joslin, M.D., Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

The research, already partially funded with a grant from Pfizer, will measure the impact of educational and non-educational interventions on practice. According to their press release, “the leading clinical informatics provider Forward Health Group, Inc. will aggregate and automate a process to collect electronic data to track actual performance in clinical practice in areas specific to diabetes and cardiometabolic risk.”

These data will then be used to set the standard for comparisons of other assessment methodologies, including self-report, competency assessment and chart pull techniques.

According to Julie Brown, Executive Director, Professional Education at Joslin, “with the challenges in our nation’s health system, and specifically with chronic illness, certified continuing medical education (CME) must play a vital role in ensuring practitioners are aware of and competent in the latest evidence-based best practice for care.”

Brown also added that, “in order for providers of CME to offer the most effective programs, they need to have a better understanding of the most efficient and effective ways to arrive at the outcomes they are striving for and this research is a crucial significant step towards that goal.”

According to Pfizer’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, “Pfizer recognizes the value of CME.” Dr. Lewis-Hall recognized that Pfizer has “experienced firsthand how effective medical education can provide valuable information about treatment approaches that may reduce the enormous burden chronic illnesses place on our communities and the nation.”

Pfizer has supported 50% of this grant as a challenge to other commercial supporters to step up and support this important research. The findings from this research will “undoubtedly inform and perhaps change the metrics and reporting methods currently acceptable for the assessment of performance in practice linked to CME and PI CME for health care professionals.”