Mission Statement
Fulfilling lifelong learning needs of physicians to provide quality patient care.
Mission and Purpose
The mission of The University of Utah Continuing Medical Education (UUCME) is to support lifelong learning for University of Utah physicians, community physicians and other healthcare professionals and to serve as a critical element in The University of Utah continuum of medical education. The UUCME certifies activities for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM.
The UUCME office provides research and evidence-based activities to promote an increase in patient safety, a reduction in medical errors, more appropriate methods for prescribing (medications and treatments) and more effective methods of referrals in order to enhance the ultimate goal of helping physicians practice high quality patient care resulting in better outcomes.
Our objective is to effectively enhance and/or change competence, performance, or patient outcomes through the quality of care that faculty physicians and other healthcare professionals provide. Our office dedicates its support and resources to ensure the activities provided consist of the best available research evidence and most valid and current educational materials.
UUCME’s goal is to step beyond the sole use of traditional adult educational methods by combining past educational efforts with the utilization of non-educational strategies and to address barriers to physician change to enhance the learning and change process. Building bridges of collaboration and cooperation within the institution and the community are fundamental in the process of improving patient outcomes, physician performance or physician competence.
The UUCME office is committed to ensure compliance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Essential Areas, Elements and Policies.
Content Areas
The UUCME office assists in the development of professional education, research, outcomes measurement and evaluation of educational activities related to clinical practice, current research, professional conduct and physician scope of practice. The content of these activities may be organized around current educational needs in medical specialties, disease specialties, clinical practices, research findings or other methodologies. Content for CME activities considers the desirable physician attributes and competencies espoused by the Institute of Medicine and the ACGME.
Education on all content areas covers the undergraduate medical education curriculum including programs nationally ranked over the past ten years. These include cancer, cardiology, gynecology, orthopedics, pulmonary, radiology (residency), stroke, and urology. The information and techniques presented to participants fosters improvement and quality in healthcare that promotes a balanced view of therapeutic options.
Target Audience
The UUCME considers university faculty physicians, practicing physicians in local affiliated and non-affiliated hospitals and medical centers and members of the state and intermountain region medical communities as the target audience. Although the majority of our participants are from these regions, many of our activities are attended by national and international audiences.
Our live activities serve as a mechanism to disseminate research findings and best practices to the world. CME activity planners are encouraged to consider the scope of practice of their physician target audience. The University of Utah School of Medicine Alumni is a select target group and we intend to meet their extended lifelong learning needs.
Type of Activities
Various types of educational activities are provided by the UUCME office. Live activities form the core of the program, consisting of single and multiple day conferences, seminars, symposia, review courses, updates, grand rounds, lectures, tumor boards, case presentations, panel discussions, demonstrations, workshops, small group discussions and hands-on laboratory activities. These activities are designed to promote quality improvement in healthcare while giving a balanced view of therapeutic options. Planners are encouraged when choosing the format of the activity to consider the setting, the objectives and desired results.
The CME program is expanding to include an increased number of the following activities: enduring materials, Internet CME (internet searching and learning), distance learning, performance improvement and journal CME.
Expected Results
To serve as a critical element in the continuum of medical education, the UUCME office measures the results and effectiveness of our activities through participant evaluations, case studies, tests, simulations, pre-test/post-test, reviews and assessments. Our ultimate goal is to be able to measure the knowledge or competence gained, performance level obtained, or the patient outcomes achieved, the extent clinical practice patterns were changed and how well the CME program through its activities was able to close identified educational gaps.
Each department assesses change in a participant’s knowledge, attitude, behavior, competence or performance to ultimately enhance the quality of patient care. Some of the results we anticipate experiencing include: promoting increasing levels of patient safety and quality, a decrease in unnecessary expenses, more appropriate prescribing, implementation of best practices and a reduction in medical errors.
CME activities facilitate practice-based learning and improvement. Our commitment is to measure the effectiveness of our activities as change agents. The learning and change process for both the learner and CME provider is a never ending one. Through the planning process we anticipate that barriers to change will be addressed during the activity. Activities strive to identify and address factors that impact patient outcomes.
The UUCME program is transitioning from just communicating objectives for an activity to generating activities and educational interventions that are designed to change competence, performance, or patient outcomes. By integrating CME with improvement initiatives, our hope is to improve physician clinical practice and thereby the quality of patient care. The examination of the impact of identified areas for improvement is part of our overall program evaluation to ensure that UUCME is meeting its mission.
The UUCME office also strives to establish a close collaboration and work in cooperation with the quality improvement, risk management, performance monitoring, telehealth, and distance learning functional areas. In addition, collaboration with groups external to the institution such as the community, government, foundations, and societies are encouraged and highly valued.
Another UUCME office goal is to create a linkage in the continuum of medical education within the school of medicine in sharing knowledge, databases, information and trends with Undergraduate Education (UME) and Graduate Medical Education (GME) for the purpose of enhancing the entire educational experience. Through this linkage, the CME office can assist the institution in maintaining regulatory compliance with the various organizations within the healthcare community. We expect to provide the best quality departmental conferences available in our region.
These quality education activities will serve as a mechanism for university faculty to disseminate best practices and research findings to local, regional, national and international audience members.
