ACCME: Accreditation Rules Safeguard Continuing Medical Education from Commercial Influence
Continuing medical education courses have been under attack lately, with skeptical writers making unsubstantiated claims that CME courses have "become a key marketing tool for increasing clinician receptivity to new products." Those writers make bold claims, but are unable to back their claims up with concrete evidence.
Graham T. McMahon, a physician and the president of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), has been working diligently to set some of these unsupported claims straight, reminding medical professionals and others that organizations such as the ACCME exist to "set and monitor the...
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 16, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
The Mastery Learning Medical Education Pathway
By: William C. McGaghie, PhD, professor of medical education, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
In 2004, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, we began a mastery learning program to train PGY-2 internal medicine residents in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) team resuscitation skills. There is the perception that American Heart Association (AHA) provider courses–the traditional “gold standard” for ACLS education–are insufficient to prepare residents to respond to actual ACLS events. So we developed our mastery learning program. The sessions involve strong doses of deliberate practice by in...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - November 5, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Featured Guest Perspective deliberate practice graduate medical education mastery learning undergraduate medical education Source Type: blogs
Does Anyone Really Think Industry Funded CME Is Independent?
Does anyone really think that commercially supported continuing medical education (CME) is truly independent? Or does anyone really think that it has the primary goal of delivering quality medical education? A few weeks ago John Fauber and colleagues wrote an important story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and MedPage Today about the role of CME in helping...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - October 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics CME communication Fauber low-T Slippery Slope tesosterone Source Type: blogs
CME Back to the Future
Conclusion
As has been made clear from many years of research and education, science is constantly changing, and advocating for less research and fewer new drugs, as the authors of the "Slippery Slope" series are wont to do, is a dangerous pastime. We cannot use yesterday's science on today's problems. Medical research and continuing medical education are two important factors in making sure our healthcare providers are as up-to-date and efficient as possible.
The CME Coalition has issued a strong response to the MedPage Today/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Slippery Slope articles and gracefully MedPage today publishe...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 27, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Policy and Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
CME that Counts for American Board of Internal Medicine MOC Update
In response to requests from physicians and accredited CME providers, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) have collaborated to simplify the integration of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) and accredited CME. The goal behind the collaboration is to expand the number and diversity of accredited CME activities that offer ABIM MOC points, and to streamline the process for registering for CME activities in ABIM’s MOC program.
Dr. Richard J. Baron, President and CEO of ABIM states, “While ABIM already offers more than 300 medical know...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 23, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Policy and Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Low T And High BS: The Role of CME
Most of my readers are keenly aware of the explosion in the marketing of testosterone products in recent years. Now a joint investigation from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today uncovers the key role played by continuing medical education (CME) programs funded by companies that make prescription testosterone products. The story, by reporters John Fauber, Coulter...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - October 18, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes CME Education Fauber testosterone Source Type: blogs
Medical Errors, Or Not
By NORTIN M HADLER, MD
In a recent post, the renowned neurologist, Martin Samuels, paid homage to the degree to which uncertainties create more than just anxious clinicians, they can lead to clinical errors. That post was followed by another by Paul Levy, a former CEO of a Boston hospital, arguing that the errors can be diminished and the anxieties assuaged if institutions adhered to an efficient, salutary systems approach. Both Dr. Samuels and Mr. Levy anchor their perspective in the 1999 report of Institute of Medicine Report, “To Err is Human”, which purported to expose an alarming frequency of fatal iatrogenic e...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Simon Nath Tags: THCB Nortin M. Hadler Source Type: blogs
Stemming The Tide Of Prescription Opioid Overuse, Misuse, And Abuse
This article describes how Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health plans, is working to reduce opioid abuse among its more than 10 million members, and offers insight for the health care system as a whole.
How We Got Here
Beginning in the late 1990s, patient advocacy organizations began asking the medical community whether pain was being under-treated. In 1999, the Veterans Health Administration launched the “Pain as the 5th Vital Sign” initiative, urging doctors to assess pain at every visit. Soon, other major health care accreditation and regulatory authorities, such as the Joint Commi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 22, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Samantha DuPont, Athan Bezaitis and Murray Ross Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Health Professionals Hospitals Innovations in Care Delivery Organization and Delivery Population Health Public Health addiction chronic pain Kaiser Permanente oxycodones Substance Abuse Source Type: blogs
21st Century Cures Update
Conclusion
We will continue to monitor the 21st Century Cures legislation and any potential bill from the Senate. We hope legislation that makes it through the Senate contains similar CME language as the House version. That is yet to be seen. It could take many months for there to be clarity, unfortunately, as Rep. Upton and Rep. DeGette’s multi-year project may need to find its own cure for the negative momentum currently plaguing the legislation in the Senate.
(Source: Policy and Medicine)
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 22, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Policy and Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Physician Payments Sunshine Act: Open Payments Infographic
Potomac River Partners recently put together an infographic of CMS Open Payments data, which provides an interesting look at the “General Payments” to physicians from manufacturers. Click on the image below for a magnified view.
The infographic displays some useful benchmarking information, including graphs that plot the average amount companies spent on meals, consulting, education, and compensation for services other than consulting. Another chart contains the top 10 drugs by dollar amount spent. Notably, 7 of the top 10 drugs from 2013 remained in the top 10 for 2014, and 8 of the top 10 are co-marketed drugs...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 11, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
To Fight Noncommunicable Diseases, Forge Strong Partnerships
Throughout nearly all of human history, most people died from causes for which pathogens were to blame. But today, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and chronic lung disease—are responsible for more human deaths than all other causes combined. NCDs are also an overlooked cause of poverty, they stifle economic development in countries where they’re common, and their prevalence is increasing globally.
According to the World Health Organization, NCDs are now responsible for 68 percent of deaths worldwide, and cumulative economic losses due to NCDs could re...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 8, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Bart Peterson Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Equity and Disparities Featured Global Health Health Professionals Long-term Services and Supports Organization and Delivery Population Health Public Health Quality Diabetes Eli Lilly Source Type: blogs
Education Positively Impacts Safe Opioid Prescribing Among Clinicians
A recent study in the journal Pain Medicine, looking at the impact of continuing medical education (CME) on opioid prescribing found that educating clinicians on how to safely prescribe opioids can help decrease misuse among chronic pain sufferers.
While untreated or under-treated chronic pain causes reduced function and quality of life, including increased risks of suicide, more aggressive chronic pain management with opioid analgesics has been associated with an increase in prescription opioid misuse including addiction and overdose deaths. Due to the high prevalence of prescription opioid misuse, the ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 4, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
How PAs Factor Into Improved CMS Patient Satisfaction Scores
When I started work as a certified physician assistant (PA-C) 30 years ago, I provided health care for the homeless as the medical officer for an outreach mobile health team in Brooklyn, N.Y. I literally treated patients on the street, and patient satisfaction was measured by having them simply tell me they felt better.
Today patient satisfaction is being dissected and analyzed many different ways by physician offices, hospitals, and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), driven largely by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and a policy to tie reimbursement to patient perceptions and compliance with clini...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 2, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Dawn Morton-Rias Tags: Equity and Disparities Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Organization and Delivery Quality ACOs CAHPS HCAHPS patient satisfaction physician assistants Source Type: blogs
Purdue Pharma Settles With New York AG Over Oxycontin Promotion; Agrees To Long List of Requirements To Ensure “Responsible and Transparent Marketing”
New York’s Attorney General recently announced an agreement with Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, that holds the company to a long list of requirements aimed at stemming the recent increase in opioid addiction and opioid-related deaths. The settlement resolves an investigation launched in December 2013 where the government found Purdue may have “failed to take the necessary steps” to ensure their sales reps properly flagged prescribers who may abuse or divert the medication. Further, the settlement resolves the government’s investigation into Purdue’s unbranded pain advocacy website. While ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - August 24, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
CMS Provides an "Update on Open Payments Reporting" at CBI Transparency and Aggregate Spend Conference
Hundreds of people flocked to Washington, DC this week for a three-day conference on Open Payments reporting and associated state and international transparency initiatives. CBI’s Ninth Annual Transparency and Aggregate Spend Conference featured keynote speaker Doug Brown, the Group Director of the Data Sharing & Partnership Group in the Center for Program Integrity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Brown has been a familiar face to those working in the aggregate spend space, and this year provided a recap of some improvements his agency has made to the Open Payments system, a summa...
Source: Policy and Medicine - August 19, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
