Continuing Physician Professional Development

AMA members: apply for certification board, review committee appointments

The AMA Council on Medical Education is seeking AMA members for nominations to the following positions:

• American Board of Emergency Medicine (four nominees required)
  Learn more and apply now.

• Residency Review Committee for Medical Genetics (two nominees required)
  Learn more and apply now.        

The deadline for applications for both positions is Sept. 15.

Please share the link to the online nomination form with anyone who may be interested.  A three-page abbreviated CV is also required.

Questions? Contact Evelyn Sherrill at (312) 464-4515.

Three new AMA PRA pilots developed to meet physicians' new needs

Evaluation of the AMA Physician's Recognition Award (PRA) credit system is an ongoing process to ensure that the credit system remains relevant and recognizes participation in continuing medical educational (CME) activities that have demonstrated their value for physicians.  The AMA Council on Medical Education often conducts pilot projects to test new methods, learning formats and improvements to the AMA PRA credit system.

The Council has approved three pilot programs to ensure that the AMA PRA credit system continues to meet the needs of physicians. 

The Task Force on Sources of Evidence Pilot Project was approved by the Council in November 2011. The Task Force will be asking accredited CME providers to volunteer to test the viability and value of disclosing the reference(s) for any clinical recommendations made during live CME activities that have been certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.  Faculty at certified live CME activities provided by pilot participants will be asked to disclose the source(s) of each clinical recommendation.  Following each live activity, audience members would then have the opportunity to consult the source(s) for more information and to personally verify the clinical recommendations.

The Association of American Medical Colleges proposed the Learning from Teaching Pilot Program to the Council. This pilot recognizes that physicians who teach residents and medical students in a clinical setting need rigorous preparation time as well as reflection.  The goal of the pilot is to develop a format to award AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ to physician faculty members involved in clinical instruction of medical students and residents. The project will document the preparation, instruction, oversight and reflection by physician faculty involved in this type of teaching.

New clinical guidelines require thorough and comprehensive research and discussion before being adopted by physicians. Those physicians who either create new guidelines or adapt existing guidelines inevitably become skilled and knowledgeable about a particular medical topic.

The Mayo Clinic proposed to the Council the Clinical Guideline Development and Deployment Pilot Project to provide AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for physicians engaged in this type of rigorous guideline development. This project will study the process through which physicians research and test the guidelines they are creating in order to determine if and how AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ should be awarded.

Addressing health care disparities through CME

What role can continuing medical education (CME) play in eliminating health care disparities? Check out a new video interview featuring Sonja Boone, MD, director of physician health and health care disparities at the AMA, along with Murray Kopelow, MD, chief executive, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. The video defines the issues surrounding health care disparities and discusses the importance of educating physicians in cultural competency and humility.

The CME profession can play an important role in addressing this need by improving the quality and assessing the outcomes of multicultural education programs, notes Robert Like, MD, author of an article on this topic in the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. The article notes that the CME profession needs to become more culturally competent in its development, implementation, and evaluation of education programs.

Faculty wishing to become more adept in their teaching cultural competence and related topics may wish to attend Healing Health Care Disparities through Education: An Interdisciplinary Faculty Development Program, set for Oct. 12–13 in Boston. Sponsored by the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, this immersion course is targeted to medical and dental school faculty involved in teaching medical students and directing clerkships in the clinical years as well as hospital-based faculty and directors of residency and fellowship programs.

AMA meeting delegates: Develop alternatives for non-board certified physicians

At the recent Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates, Maintenance of Certification and maintenance of licensure were the subjects of significant debate, as evidenced by a front-page story in the July 2 American Medical News. Delegates voted to adopt AMA policy that encourages medical licensure alternatives for the estimated 200,000 physicians who are not board certified.

Physicians, hospitals join together to advance patient care

The American Hospital Association's (AHA's) Physician Leadership Forum (PLF) is an initiative designed to help physicians and hospitals work together to advance excellence in patient care.  Through the PLF, the AHA works closely with the medical community to identify successful practices that deliver value-based care.

The PLF hosts educational programming, including webinars on a broad range of topics including quality practices, clinical integration, and care coordination, along with resources related to the impact of health reform, team-based leadership of care systems, health care workforce, and quality and patient safety. 

The PLF recently hosted its second professional development session, "Creating the Hospital of the Future: The Implications for Hospital-Focused Physician Practice."  The 2011 session covered team-based care and resulted in the guide "Team-Based Health Care Delivery:  Lessons from the Field."  The PLF has also recently released a white paper, "Lifelong Learning – Physician Competency Development," which examines the competencies needed to deliver coordinated, team-based, value-driven care and provides recommendations for how hospitals and physician-associated organizations can develop these skills in the current and next generation of physicians.

Learn more about PLF, access its complimentary resources and sign up to receive its bi-weekly newsletter.

News and notes

• The web we weave: The extent of physicians' informal professional networks with other physicians varies widely based on practice location and type (JAMA).
• Ban on pharma meals for physicians overturned in Massachusetts; "modest" food and drinks are now acceptable (American Medical News).
• Drop this anchor: For better diagnoses, avoid the trap of the "anchoring bias" (New York Times).
• Is the "golden age" of medicine drawing to a close? One commentator believes the role of physicians at the center of health care is under pressure (The Economist).