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For members of the Texas Children's Hospital medical staff
Texas Children’s CME accreditation benefits medical
staff and patients
By Stuart L. Abramson, M.D., Ph.D.
We are
fortunate to live in a time and place where medical
research and medical devices needed to benefit
children’s health are in the forefront of development
and implementation. Such an environment makes Texas
Children’s Hospital a natural fit to provide pertinent,
state-of-the-art continuing medical education (CME)
programs.
After the hospital became an accredited provider in June
2006, the CME committee was established to evaluate and
approve high-quality continuing professional education
activities for physicians and other health care
professionals that meet the needs and objectives
necessary to improve children’s health in a variety of
areas. The science, the ethics, the business,
professionalism and communication skills (e.g. the
“art”) are among some of the areas that are germane to
CME. In fact, the same competencies that are addressed
for resident physicians by the Accreditation Council for
Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are key components of
lifelong learning following residency: Patient care,
medical knowledge, practice-based learning and
improvement, interpersonal communication skills,
professionalism and systems-based practice. There is
also an art to delivering the most effective CME, and I
am pleased that we have committee members who also
belong to the Baylor Academy of Distinguished Educators
to assist with recommendations to CME program directors
in this regard.
As we work to update our professional knowledge and
clinical skills, patients should benefit by improved
(measurable) outcomes. The measurement of such outcomes
is a substantial part of newly established criteria for
CME accreditation “with commendation.” This desirable
status also requires CME providers to implement
educational strategies to remove, overcome, or address
barriers to physician change. Specific mention is made
of the need to “build bridges with other stakeholders
through collaboration and cooperation,” and to
participate “within an institutional or system framework
for quality improvement.”
Many of the quality improvement initiatives already
implemented in the hospital by recommendations from
various working committees, with the focused addition of
a formal curriculum, may actually meet the criteria for
CME. We have sought representation by at least one
member from each of the hospital’s working committees to
facilitate the communication for potential CME endeavors
with various divisions of the hospital. CME is currently
a requirement for maintenance of licensure in Texas and
in most subspecialty areas, for maintenance of
certification, and there are now many ways to obtain
credits from live programs, Web-based modalities, as
well as through enduring materials (journals, etc.).
This is helpful to accommodate diverse learning styles
and preferences. Physician self-directed assessment and
practice performance assessment are new areas of
evaluation for many re-certification programs. The
application for Texas Children’s Hospital CME is not
onerous, but does require attention to documentation
regarding planning and implementation. A needs
assessment is required, speakers and topics should be
discussed by the planning committee, and minutes
documented prior to the completion of the application.
I would like acknowledge Deborah Marre for her
administrative leadership and Valerie Veasley for her
administrative support for the committee. All inquiries
regarding potential CME programs as well as assistance
with CME issues relevant to licensure and
re-certification are welcome. We look forward to
facilitating lifelong learning for the medical staff
that will endeavor to translate into the best patient
care that we can provide.
Stuart
L. Abramson, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Texas
Children's Continuing Medical Education Committee, is a physician with
the Allergy and Immunology Service and associate
professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.
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