Hands-on Education: Make It Practical

The Status of CME
For years, we’ve been educating physicians about the latest therapies and medical devices. However, equal emphasis should now be placed on helping them to integrate the educational information into changes in performance and to navigate the complexities of the current healthcare system to ensure that barriers to implementation are removed or overcome.

Diagnostic and therapeutic challenges faced by physicians continue to increase, while the escalating requirements and expectations of insurance companies leave them (and their patients) exasperated. The end result is that physicians are left to figure out how to do it all.

As CME providers, how can we continue to help physicians overcome the barriers of improving their clinical practice? The answer may be simpler than you think: Use CME to complete the educational cycle and provide clinicians with tools and strategies to implement what we've taught them.

Make it Simple
In a recent CME activity, clinicians were educated about a new surgical procedure and how to coordinate patient follow up with their non-physician staff. This single educational intervention resulted in a profound reduction in adverse events noted after the procedure due to improved patient screening before the procedure and follow up at the right time. Patient care and health outcomes were improved. How was this accomplished? By giving physicians a simple plan of action to implement what was taught. Of equal importance, the activity raised awareness of potential barriers that should be avoided in the physicians' clinical practices.

If we develop CME activities that address the administrative realities of modern clinical practice, the results can be profound. Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Provide education that gives a hands-on or informal discussion component to accelerate integration into physicians’ clinical considerations.
• Addresses the administrative components of the physicians' and non-physicians’ daily duties.
• Include resource materials that can serve as follow up education that can reinforce and sustain the learning related to the content of the CME activities.

Efforts such as these can arm clinicians with strategies that can be put into practice immediately and may contribute to improvements in patient care.

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Continuing Medical Education for Medical Devices - The Time Is Now

Continuing Medical Education: Now vs. Later
There has never been a better time to consider the incorporation of Continuing Medical Education into your corporate strategy. The Food & Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health has released a plan for significant changes to the 510(k) and PMA approval processes. The changes are expected to go into effect this year and are designed to encompass a "total product life cycle approach" that will enhance communication and transparency, and address unmet public needs. The changes will intensify the scrutiny of new applications and could extend the time for device approval.

Due to changes in FDA approval and potential delays in product approval targeted CME could become a required part of your educational strategy in the near future.

Do Physicians Want CME?
Physicians not only want, but demand evidence-based education that can be immediately applied to their practice. Survey results demonstrate that the location, relevance of the topic, and ease of access to an educational event are primary considerations for clinician attendance at a CME activity. Currently, non-accredited hands-on training offered by medical device companies is the primary source for education of doctors about new devices.

Physician interest in evidence-based CME-accredited education has increased significantly in the past few years. Unfortunately with only few hands-on CME courses currently available, they rapidly fill to capacity and cannot accommodate the large population of participants that would have benefited from the education.

Although a standard didactic CME course can be effective at increasing clinician knowledge, without follow up intervention, clinicians begin to forget the education within 3 weeks of attendance (Magazine HI, et al., Alliance for CME 31st Annual  Conference; 2006). Professional Education officials at various medical device companies have indicated that in the past, "there wasn't much value in the CME activity" and that "most of the discussion was beyond our corporate interests."

Our studies have demonstrated that the educational content of many CME courses currently offered is too diffuse and doctors may lose interest. A successful CME activity will provide education on a limited area of validated education need and provide the education in a setting and format that interests and engages the physician participant.

Science Care CME
A Science Care hands-on CME course is an example of optimized education. We conduct our CME activities at either of our state-of-the-art facilities in Phoenix or Denver or at any of our many partner facilities. Courses can be stand-alone, part of a regional initiative or provided to reinforce education at a Congress or annual meeting the doctors may already be attending. By incorporating adult educational principles with opportunities to reinforce the educational objectives with a hands-on component, clinicians are more engaged, have greater retention and may be prepared to change clinical practice after only one educational activity.

Our hands-on CME courses have resulted in improvements in physician competence (Figure 1) and have accelerated appropriate use of devices within the physician's clinical practice. The use of educational outcomes assessment tools Science Care has demonstrated rapid changes to clinical practice and significant improvement in patient outcomes (Figures 2, 3).

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Science Care hands-on CME courses provide:
• Intensive education focused on an area of validated educational need
• Evidence-based education limited to "relevant" medical devices including those that have not yet received
   510(k) approval
• Opportunities to improve physician competency and performance
• Educational outcomes that validate improved knowledge or competence, and rapid incorporation of    
   enhanced clinical skills into their practice

Science Care CME has significant value compared to standard didactic CME and can complement the ongoing professional education conducted by your organization.

To find out more about Educational Outcomes and Performance Improvement Metrics or about Hands-on Education at Science Care email CME@sciencecare.com  or call 800.590.8132.