Continuing medical education ( CME ) is continuing education (CE) that helps those in the medical field maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. These activities may take place as live events, written publications, online programs, audio, video, or other electronic media. Content for these programs is developed, reviewed, and delivered by faculty who are experts in their individual clinical areas. Similar to the process used in academic journals , any potentially conflicting financial relationships for faculty members must be both disclosed and resolved in a meaningful way. However, critics complain that drug and device manufacturers often use their financial sponsorship to bias CMEs towards marketing their own products.
23-541: The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education ( ACCME ) sets and enforces standards in physician continuing education (or "lifelong learning") within the United States. It acts as the overseeing body for institutions and organizations providing continuing medical education (CME) activities. The Council's seven founding member organizations are the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS),
46-534: A CME provider to pay (or overpay) them as CME faculty, consultants, or members of a speaker's bureau," wrote Morris and Taitsman. CMEs also work alongside the medical-industrial complex , which describes the connection between pharmaceutical companies, healthcare corporations, and physicians in creating for-profit healthcare products. Physicians who undergo continuing medical education courses can oftentimes be subject to bias due to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare corporations promoting products throughout
69-444: A defined subject in basic or applied research. For example, the application of evidence-based medicine to some area of medical practice can be facilitated by a journal club. Typically, each participant can voice their view relating to several questions such as the appropriateness of the research design, the statistics employed, the appropriateness of the controls that were used, etc. There might be an attempt to synthesize together
92-638: A five-year cycle. Fifty credits must be obtained for each year of the cycle. To earn and maintain fellowship within the college, an additional 24 credit-hours of higher level learning are also required over each learning cycle. Similarly, each province and territory requires documentation of ongoing CME for licensure. Continuing medical education activities are developed and delivered by a variety of organizations, including: Activities may be classified as Formal Learning Activities, including live planned programs, enduring materials (such as DVD- and web-based content), Process Improvement CME (or PI-CME, as defined by
115-571: A narrow focus on the products and to neglect provisions of a broader education on alternative strategies," such as communication and prevention. For example, gabapentin (Neurontin), was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adjunctive therapy in epilepsy, but Warner-Lambert sponsored CME activities that encouraged its use for off-label indications. The U.S. Department of Justice brought civil and criminal charges against Warner-Lambert, which Warner-Lambert settled for $ 430 million, alleging that Warner-Lambert paid kickbacks to doctors in
138-546: A number of additional Twitter journal clubs. The earliest references to a journal club was found in a book of memoirs and letters by the late Sir James Paget , a British surgeon, who describes a group at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London in the mid-19th century as "a kind of club ... a small room over a baker's shop near the Hospital-gate where we could sit and read the journals ." Sir William Osler established
161-580: A single discussion. The first Twitter Journal club was an Allergy Journal Club run by Dr. Ves Dimoz in 2008. They used Twitter to document the discussion of coverage of a traditional in-person journal club. This journal club established the use of hashtags to organize journal club comments. The first group to run a journal club primarily on Twitter was The Twitter Journal Club started by Natalie Silvey and Fi Douglas in May 2011. The original Twitter Journal Club appears to have gone offline. Since then there have been
184-422: A topic relevant to the field. An analysis of one hundred publications describing and evaluating journal clubs found that they are most effective if they have a clearly identified leader and have an established purpose that all articles can be linked to. Prominent journals and scientific societies have begun hosting online commenting features that they are referring to as journal clubs. The stated purpose of these
207-835: Is earned by standardized exam, and confers the Certified CME Professional (CCMEP) certificate. NC-CME maintains a registry of these certified professionals. As of June 2011, the Registry included 320 professionals. Critics, such as Morris and Taitsman, would prefer that the medical profession eliminate commercial support for CME. Despite ACCME requirements that program content be free of commercial interests, " CME providers can easily pitch topics designed to attract commercial sponsorship," and sponsors can award grants to programs that support their marketing strategies. The Institute of Medicine has said that CME has become too reliant on industry funding that "tends to promote
230-589: Is part of special programs offered by other organizations (e.g. the American Medical Association) and is not the purview of the ACCME. The ACCME's mission is to provide those in the medical field with opportunities to maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. A voluntary self-regulated system and a peer-review process are used to regulate and accredit medical education providers. The primary responsibilities of
253-586: Is to allow for discussion by online comments on scientific publications. Online journal clubs bring about different benefits to traditional clubs. While journal clubs have been an opportunity for students and trainees to gain experience presenting articles and addressing issues, with the online "journal club" comment format, authors are able to comment and reply to critiques. Journal clubs continue to adapt to new technology and methods of communication. Recently journal clubs have begun to take advantage of Twitter allowing geographically diverse groups to participate in
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#1732782503141276-857: The American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Medical Association (AMA), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the Association for Hospital Medical Education (AHME), the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). These organizations established the ACCME in 1981. The ACCME sets standards and certifies that institutions and organizations meet those standards. "CME credit"
299-616: The ACCME are to: The 2022 ACCME Data Report includes information on 1,620 accredited CME providers that offered 230,000 accredited educational activities. As of 2023, the organization has 36 employees. Continuing medical education Continuing medical education is not a new concept. From essentially the beginning of institutionalized medical instruction (medical instruction affiliated with medical colleges and teaching hospitals), health practitioners continued their learning by meeting with their peers. Grand rounds, case discussions, and meetings to discuss published medical papers constituted
322-479: The American Medical Association), or Informal Learning Activities such as Internet-Point of Care (POC) research and decision making, or journal clubs whose members evaluate published research for mutual awareness and benefit, or online professional communities. In 2008, professional certification for CME planners was established by the National Commission for Certification of CME Professionals which
345-565: The Royal College as Fellows maintain their knowledge, skills, competence and performance through participating in the Maintenance of Certification Program. For each five-year cycle, fellows of the college are required to document 400 credits, with a minimum of 40 credits obtained in each year of the cycle. Credits are earned at one to two credits per hour, based on the type of learning activity. The CFPC requires 250 credit-hours over
368-784: The United States, CME for physicians is regulated by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). In Canada, certification is provided by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). The RCPSC is responsible for the development and implementation of all certifying examinations in each specialty other than Family Medicine. Specialist physicians who join
391-504: The United States, Canada, Great Britain and Europe. The pharmaceutical industry has also developed guidelines regarding drug detailing and industry sponsorship of CME, such as the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB) and Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D). In the United States, many states require CME for medical professionals to maintain their licenses. Within
414-542: The advanced literature in their new field of study. In addition, these journal clubs help improve the students' critical thinking skills of understanding and debating current topics of active interest in their field. This type of journal club may sometimes be taken for credit . Research laboratories may also organize journal clubs for all researchers in the lab to help them keep up with the literature produced by others who work in their field. Traditionally, journal clubs have met weekly or monthly to discuss current research in
437-584: The continuing learning experience. In the 1950s through to the 1980s, CME was increasingly funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Concerns regarding informational bias (both intentional and unintentional) led to increasing scrutiny of the CME funding sources. This led to the establishment of certifying agencies such as the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education which is an umbrella organization representing medical associations and bodies of academic medicine from
460-427: The course. This can create poor outcomes for patients , who are oftentimes subject to physician bias and potentially detrimental effects. Journal club A journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in the academic literature , such as the scientific literature , medical literature , or philosophy literature. Journal clubs are usually organized around
483-462: The first formalized journal club at McGill University in Montreal in 1875. The original purpose of Osler's journal club was "for the purchase and distribution of periodicals to which he could ill afford to subscribe." Tinsley Harrison , the famous creator of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine hosted a journal club at his house twice a month where one member of the group would present
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#1732782503141506-507: The form of lavish trips to attend presentations abйИЯСout off-label uses . More recently, AstraZeneca PLC has been fined $ 520 million in the United States for off-label promotion to doctors for their anti-psychotic drug, Seroquel . Industry-sponsored CMEs can violate federal statutes, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . "When a pharmaceutical manufacturer rewards high-prescribing physicians by directing
529-434: The results of several papers, even if some of these results might first appear to contradict each other. Even if the results of the study are seen as valid, there might be a discussion of how useful the results are and if these results might lead to new research or to new applications. Journal clubs are sometimes used in the education of graduate or professional students. These help make the students become more familiar with
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