News in brief - Oct. 2, 2006

Slight increase in CME spending forecast for 2007 - Medical corps reaches 50 states - Groups tackle hand-washing compliance rates

Slight increase in CME spending forecast for 2007

Cutting Edge Information, a research and consulting firm for the pharmaceutical industry, reported in August that industry spending on continuing medical education will increase slightly in 2007 to around $1.15 billion to $1.2 billion, compared to an estimated $1.05 billion in 2006.

According to a survey the firm conducted, 78% of next year's spending is expected to go toward live events, 19% toward developing Internet CME or eCME and 3% toward enduring materials such as courses on CD-ROM.

In 2005, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education reported commercial spending on CME at $1.11 billion and up to $1.35 billion when including pharmaceutical company spending on advertising and exhibits tied to CME activities.

Medical corps reaches 50 states

The Medical Reserve Corps, a network of locally based medical and other volunteers, now has units in all 50 states. North Dakota became the final state to join the effort with the registration and approval of the North Dakota Public Health Emergency Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps.

MRC units work to strengthen the public health infrastructure in their communities throughout the year, and respond to disasters as needed. The volunteer units become part of the local response by working with preparedness, public health and other partners. The program is housed in the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General in the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Since 2003, the corps has grown to more than 460 units in communities across the country with more than 85,000 volunteers providing medical and public health support. For more information on the program, visit the group's Web site (www.medicalreservecorps.gov).

Groups tackle hand-washing compliance rates

Seven major infection-control and quality-improvement organizations have launched an 18-month project to determine how best to measure hand-hygiene compliance in hospitals. Though hand-washing rates in hospitals are pegged at 50%, getting an exact handle on how often physicians and other health professionals follow recommendations is difficult, according to Elaine Larson, RN, PhD, scientific adviser for the project and associate dean for research at the Columbia University School of Nursing in New York.

"I have been studying hand hygiene for years, but we still do not have an ideal way to measure adherence," Dr. Larson said in a statement. That lack of a precisely accurate picture has impeded efforts to improve compliance rates and determine which interventions are most effective, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and six other groups participating in the project.

Among the barriers to accurately measuring hand hygiene, experts say, is the difficulty of tracking the behavior of many different physicians and health professionals over a meaningful period of time.