Several articles about continuing medical education (CME) were recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). One article discussed the importance of regulatory alignment with the boards while the other discussed the proposed CME pyramid.
CME Pyramid
Medical education is an evolving field and as of late, there has been an increased focus on addressing professional practice gaps – the gaps between what physicians are doing and what they should be doing. Therefore, an outcomes framework has been proposed in the form of a pyramid that provides perspective on how addressing these practice gaps may be accomplished.
According to the article, “[t]he pyramid is based on 7 levels of outcomes that are associated with the decisions of a clinician to participate in learning, to engage in learning, to use what he or she learned, and, at the summit, the effects of learning on patients and community. CME has traditionally been focused on learning (level 3) and in some cases on competence (level 4), which is similar to the “shows how” level of the pyramid in which a learner demonstrates to a teacher that he or she can do what has been learned.”
The article further notes, “It could be argued that if CME contributes to improving patient health on a broad front, such that many patients and many diseases are affected, then community health, that is, population health, must necessarily improve,” which is the impetus behind the push for all physicians and health care providers to be current on their education and continue learning for the benefit of their patients.
Cultural differences also plays a role in practice gaps and an analysis of health care in different countries shows how evident cultural differences are and that gaps in knowledge happen in developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.
The article also notes, however, that improvement cannot be achieved by CME alone, but will require the involvement of many different organizations. For example, this year the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing completion of an accredited CME program directed at performance or quality improvement. This Clinical Practice Improvement Activity must address a quality or safety gap that is supported by a needs assessment. The proposal has been endorsed by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, which is now collaborating with the American Board of Medical Specialties to facilitate the integration of CME and maintenance of certification.
The CME pyramid works to bring each of the individual groups together to create a comprehensive solution to physician and provider education.
Innovation through Regulatory Alignment
The President and CEO of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, and the Vice President for Medical Education at the American Medical Association (AMA), Susan Skochelak, MD, co-authored a piece published in JAMA on how to promote innovation through the regulatory framework. The article discussed the collaboration between the ACCME and the AMA to establish and credit CME activities in an attempt to support clinicians and developing learning opportunities.
The authors discussed the way the two groups collaborated on a strategy “to more closely align the 2 organizations’ requirements, simplify the system, and eliminate any barriers (perceived or real) that would constrain innovation in educational delivery. To develop their approach, the organizations convened listening sessions with various groups (including staff, volunteers, and leadership from accredited organizations and state medical societies), gathering feedback from physicians and educators about how to reconstruct the system to better support the evolution of CME.” It was through this process that a joint construct was formed.
“As part of the alignment, the AMA simplified and reduced its learning format requirements. There were previously specific requirements for 7 formats; now, there are specific requirements for only 3 formats: enduring materials, journal-based CME, and performance improvement CME. In addition, the requirements for these 3 format types were simplified, so that learning is prioritized. For example, the familiar posttests can be replaced with a self-reflective statement about what has been learned and how the learner plans to change; the outcome measure for a quality improvement effort can be locally determined.”
This flexibility will help physicians and CME providers alike learn more and be able to achieve more through CME.
To that end, the ACCME, in collaboration with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and the American Nurses Credentialing Center, created the first joint accreditation system to facilitate interprofessional continuing education. This program can serve as a model for accreditors in the health professions for developing systems that promote and facilitate team-based education by removing barriers between professions and expanding the delivery of interprofessional continuing education to facilitate measurable improvements in team performance.
McMahon and Skochelak noted that the success of this construct and the continuing success of CME is going to mean continuing evolution – including identifying needs and gaps in CME and adopting approaches that reflect “the same innovative spirit and nimbleness” expected of educational providers.