U Penn CME Mission Statement

MISSION

As a leader in healthcare education, our CME mission is to assist physicians in their commitment to lifelong learning leading to improved competence and performance and patient health outcomes through the provision of high quality educational activities and initiatives.

Our CME program benefits from the combined presence of a strong academic medical school and a fully integrated health system (UPHS). In keeping with the overall missions of the School, the Health System, and the University, the major goal of our program is to provide a mechanism for diffusion of cutting-edge research, technological advancements, and training into the general medical community.

The PURPOSE of our CME Program is to provide healthcare providers with up-to-date, clinically relevant, scientifically rigorous, evidence-based medical information and training using educationally sound principles and formats in order to promote excellence in all aspects of medical care and coordination, patient safety, and the effective use of resources.

CONTENT AREAS The majority of our CME activities focus on clinical updates and the latest research across all therapeutic areas with reviews of new diagnostic techniques, therapies and procedures. Other content areas include bioethics, cultural competency, patient safety and risk management, development of physicians' practice management and leadership skills, as well as performance improvement initiatives.

The Office of CME (OCME) coordinates its efforts with other elements within the University, the School, and Penn Medicine to optimize the development of educational initiatives that focus on patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, professionalism, system-based practice, and interpersonal and communication skills.

TARGET AUDIENCE The Office of CME at the Perelman School of Medicine develops CME activities for physicians and other healthcare professionals across the full range of medical specialties and subspecialties. Most educational activities developed through the OCME are designed for practicing physicians providing a continuum of care from primary through tertiary and rehabilitative medicine. The majority of participants in regularly scheduled series and live courses are local and regional from the Tri-State area (i.e., Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). However, most of our online activities and larger conferences are designed for national and international audiences. Participants may include research faculty, staff (including residents, fellows, and medical students), nurses and other healthcare providers in team- and system-based learning.

TYPES OF ACTIVITIES AND SCOPE OF SERVICES PROVIDED A wide spectrum of educational activities and instructional methods are utilized drawing upon the rich and diverse educational expertise of our faculty, staff and collaborators. Types of educational initiatives produced include didactic lectures and symposia, case-based conferences and grand rounds, board review courses, hands-on workshops and skills training activities, as well as use of standardized patients in teaching and assessment. We are increasingly engaging in performance improvement-focused CME, curricular-organized educational initiatives, and Internet searching and learning at the point of care. We develop a variety of self-directed learning materials such as instructional CDs, DVDs, and journal-based materials. Of particular importance to our program are a variety of web-based interactive and innovative formats, including virtual cases and simulated patient scenarios, as well as teaching briefs™ that we develop daily as ongoing, medical news-based and just-in-time CME.

The Office of CME is a strategic and educational partner to departments and centers within our institution, region and state as well as to national organizations whose mission and vision complement our own. The Office of CME provides a range of services for planning and producing educational activities in live meeting and self-study formats. These services include planning and consulting in educational design, standards for commercial support, grants and budget management, marketing, project and logistics coordination, faculty and staff training, evaluation of results and impact of individual activities and analysis of program level contributions to improvements in practice, as well as research in educational outcomes.

We are interested in educational interventions that take into account principles derived from research in adult learning and knowledge translation in health care and strongly promote the development of initiatives that include longitudinal, interactive, case- and problem-based and patient-centric educational delivery models.

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Improve knowledge, skills and attitudes of our learners that will allow them to provide evidence-based and patient-centered care

• Link our educational goals to the IOM and ACGME/ABIM core competences, whenever possible

• Design our education to positively impact physicians' communication with their patients and with members of the healthcare teams in which they practice

• Plan and produce educational initiatives that are independent from influences by commercial interests

• Design learning objectives using process, system, and, whenever possible, patient health outcomes-based quality indicators in performance improvement initiatives

• Document and analyze learner specific changes in practice that they attribute to participation in our educational interventions

• Ensure relevance of education to the scope of learners professional practice

• Collaborate with other professionals within our healthcare system as well as with other organizations to measure and analyze meaningful competence, practice and patient-level improvements of our learners

• Engage in the continuous improvement of our own CME program

• Contribute to the educational research and practice exchange within the academic and professional community for the benefit of the CME/CPD field

The Office of CME will continue its integration with internal clinical quality and safety stakeholders and its collaboration with external partners to gather and analyze data that would provide insight into physicians' performance and clinical effectiveness as part of the assessments of the educational impact of our activities. We are committed to documentation of improvements in clinical knowledge, competence, practices and behaviors, and, whenever possible, patient outcomes.

Revised and approved July 2008