We undertook this survey to identify and prioritize opportunities to improve our services to your department. To support positive advances and move from a compliance orientation to one of continuous improvement, CME needs to emphasize clinical integration, performance improvement, and system-based practice in its activities. How you perceive the potential value of the Division of CME and its activities to your department is critical to aligning CME with organizational and departmental goals to increase our contribution as a value-adding entity to UAB units that share a similar view of CME activities.
The survey was sent to 16 UAB department chairs for whom CME is a baseline requirement for practice, we received 11 responses (69%). The results are presented below.
Thanks,
Your CME Team
Results Summary: Chair Opinions
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Results Summary
- Medical knowledge and improving quality of care remain the top perceived added value aspects of a CME program
- CME activities are perceived to be relatively effective in ensuring physicians put new knowledge into practice and that physicians can provide accurate information to their patients
- You expressed substantial interest in engaging with the UAB CME team to help physicians earn continuing certification credit
- There was a moderate recognition of the potential of CME to contribute to a department's strategic objectives - an avenue we would like to explore further
- You expressed substantial interest in the potential of CME activity and services to help generate external audiences for education activities and to increase the external profile of departments. We work with UAB physicians, the UAB Health System, and several medical education organizations to develop CME content that can showcase UAB faculty expertise and system standard of care.
If you have a specific need that you think we can help with, we'd very much like to work with you and your faculty to support you.
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Detailed Results
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Overall Value of CME
Just three of nine respondents chose to answer question #1, so these results don't mean much by themselves, but are consistent with the views held by chairs in 2023 - the perceived overall value of CME is concentrated in increasing medical knowledge and improving quality of care.
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Effectiveness of CME
Seven of nine respondents see CME as effective in ensuring physicians can provide accurate information to patients (a 2 or 3 ranking), while 8 view CME as effective in helping physicians put new knowledge into practice. Results were more mixed for improving teamwork and supporting strategic objectives.
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Potential Role of CME Services
Feedback on the potential role of CME in providing services for maintaining certification and supporting actual practice in care settings is tepid:
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Usefulness of CME
Overall, respondents think that CME could provide opportunities to raise departmental profiles externally and to help generate external audiences for UAB-developed educational offerings:
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Overall Value of CME
Results: Division Director Opinions
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Results Summary
- The survey was distributed to 59 division directors and 21 responded, providing a response rate of 36%
- Medical knowledge and improving quality of care remain the top perceived added value aspects of a CME program
- CME activities are perceived to be relatively effective in ensuring physicians put new knowledge into practice and that physicians can provide accurate information to their patients
- 15 of 21 respondents expressed substantial interest in engaging with the UAB CME team to help physicians earn continuing certification credit
- There was a moderate recognition of the potential of CME to contribute to a department's strategic objectives - an avenue we would like to explore further
- You expressed substantial interest in the potential of CME activity and services to help generate external audiences for education activities and to increase the external profile of departments. We work with UAB physicians, the UAB Health System, and medical education organizations to develop CME content that can showcase UAB faculty expertise and system standard of care.
If you have a specific need that you think we can help with, we'd very much like to work with you and your faculty to support you.
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Overall Value of CME
Perception of the overall value of CME centers on the domains of increasing knowledge and improving quality of care, with 10 respondents ranking increasing knowledge as either 1 or 2, and 11 ranking improving quality as either 1 or 2, out of the 6 value-add items presented (10 respondents did not answer this question). The weighted average score in the graph below reflects an assignment of 6 points to a ranking of most important (#1), 5 points to a ranking of second most important, etc.
Participants do not perceive much contribution of CME activities to improving team work, performance improvement, or as a means to support divsion goal attainment.
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Effectiveness of CME
15 of 21 respondents see CME as effective in ensuring physicians can provide accurate information to patients (a 2 or 3 ranking), with 17 seeing CME as effective in both helping physicians put new knowledge into practice. Improving teamwork and supporting strategic objectives were weighted lower.
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Potential Role of CME Services
Respondents didn't differentiate much in how they view the role of CME in supporting physician certification and care structures:
We have implemented several efforts to provide MOC Part II credit for live activities, regularly scheduled series, and enduring materials. -
Usefulness of CME
Overall, respondents think that CME could provide opportunities to raise external departmental profiles and providing support for developing external audiences:
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Overall Value of CME
