Chronic disease prevention and management in medical education

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Chronic disease is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. With an increase in the demand for health care and rising costs related to chronic care, it’s important for physicians to receive comprehensive training to address chronic disease at various stages of illness in a collaborative and cost-effective manner.

As part of the American Medical Association’s Education Consortium, the Chronic Disease Prevention and Management (CDPM) interest group was formed—a team of medical educators dedicated to improving CDPM in medical education and practice by drawing on health systems science—the “third pillar” of medical education.

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Learn more about the AMA's Chronic Disease Prevention and Management efforts.

The CDPM interest group meets monthly and focuses on developing and disseminating methods and tools to enhance CDPM curricula in undergraduate medical education (UME) to help prepare all medical students to provide high-quality chronic disease prevention and care.  The interest group has produced the CDPM learning objectives and H&P 360 tool.

CDPM learning objectives

Specific and measurable learning objectives are key to the design and evaluation of effective training, but to date, there has been no consensus on chronic disease learning objectives appropriate to medical student education. The CDPM interest group developed eleven learning objectives that cut across education on the prevention and management of individual chronic diseases. They are intended to be used in combination with traditional disease-specific pathophysiology and treatment objectives.

H&P 360 tool

Treating chronic conditions composes the bulk of medical practice, but the traditional history and physical (H&P) has not evolved to serve this need. The CDPM interest group developed and tested a new H&P model—the H&P 360. This tool is designed to help collect biopsychosocial data, better manage chronic disease, and address social determinants of health.

The CDPM interest group focuses on advancing the utilization of the tool by promoting awareness and collaborating to develop additional resources.  The H&P 360 Grantee Workgroup includes four institutions that are currently incorporating the H&P 360 tool within their training programs.

CDPM Interest Group

Snapshot of the H&P 360

Learn more about the evolution of the H&P 360 video, its structure, and how it's been tested and implemented in clinical settings.

Access the background of the CDPM Group and H&P 360 as well as published papers and presentations.

CDPM

CDPM papers and presentations

H&P 360

H&P 360 papers and presentations

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Interactive learning from American College of Lifestyle Medicine focused on preventing and treating chronic disease.

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