The Journal of continuing education in the health professions
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2005
The CME professional: challenges and opportunities in reforming CME.
A rationale for reforming and repositioning continuing medical education (CME) is featured in this article. As envisioned by the Conjoint Committee Report on CME and presented in other literature, the CME professional is defined, along with requisite CME professional competencies. Perspectives of CME professionals regarding the Maintenance of Certification program are presented, with a focus on requirements for physician self-assessment and lifelong learning and continuous practice improvement.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2005
Continuing medical education reform for competency-based education and assessment.
The development of competency-based education and evaluation for residents and practicing physicians by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), respectively, includes the competency of practice-based learning and improvement. Efforts to implement this and the other competencies have been a powerful stimulus for continuing medical education (CME) reform, the goal of which is to improve the outcomes of care. The ABMS member boards and their counterpart specialty societies, members of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), have formed dyads to set standards and provide education to that end. ⋯ To implement them will be a major challenge. The CME community must consider the need to provide CME across the major health professions to address the fact that most care is delivered within systems composed of many health professionals. The use of microsystems as a model for the delivery, study, and validation of this interdisciplinary CME holds great promise.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2004
The contribution of hospital library services to continuing medical education.
Much of the literature relating to continuing medical education programs laments the lack of effectiveness of traditional lecture-based format, the most often used method of presentation in hospitals. A gap exists between the content taught in lectures and the application of that knowledge in actual patient care. ⋯ These three functions (library services, continuing medical education, and quality improvement) are interdependent. Each lends strength to the other, and, ideally, all are coordinated within the hospital structure.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2004
ReviewImplementing clinical guidelines: current evidence and future implications.
One of the most common findings from health services research is a failure to routinely translate research findings into daily practice. Previous systematic reviews of strategies to promote the uptake of research findings suffered from a range of methodologic problems that have been addressed in a more recent systematic review of guideline dissemination and implementation strategies. Changes in practitioner behavior; in the desired direction, were reported in 86% of the comparisons made. ⋯ Overall, there is an imperfect evidence base for decision makers to work from. Many studies had methodologic weaknesses, and reporting of this kind of research is generally poor, making the generalizability of study findings frequently uncertain. A better theoretical underpinning of studies would make this body of research more useful.
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J Contin Educ Health Prof · Jan 2004
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialRandomized trial of problem-based versus didactic seminars for disseminating evidence-based guidelines on asthma management to primary care physicians.
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigated the effectiveness of and satisfaction with small-group problem-based learning (PBL) versus a didactic lecture approach to guideline dissemination in asthma management controlling for confounders common in comparative educational interventions. ⋯ PBL was as effective in knowledge uptake and retention as lecture-based continuing medical education (CME) programs. Further study is warranted to investigate whether the assessment of higher educational value or an increase in response rate to delayed testing is replicable in other RCTs addressing common confounders and if these factors influence future CME participation, changes in physician clinical behavior, or patient health outcomes.