"In nothing do men nearly approach the gods than in giving health to men."
-Cicero

In This Issue

• Welcome to our new director, Pat Murphy
• A message from Pat
• News: In defense of legitimate relationships between physicians and Industry
• The Scoop on CME: Learning Objectives

Welcome to Pat Murphy

I would like to welcome Patrick H. Murphy as the new Director of the Office of Continuing Professional Education. Patrick comes to our office with over 30 years of education, financial and marketing/sales management experience. Most recently Patrick served as the Director of the State University of New York’s Center for Professional Development which provided Faculty Development and Leadership training for 40+ campuses in the SUNY system. In this capacity, Patrick sat as a senior member of the Faculty Access to Computing Technology Committee and coordinated curriculum creation and course deployment for the SUNY Learning Network, SUNY’s award winning on-line education program. Prior to joining SUNY, Patrick worked with the Xerox Corporation where he was a senior manager in finance, marketing and partner operations.

We look forward to working with Patrick and the extensive experience and leadership he brings to the Office of Continuing Professional Education.

Patrick has served on the Boards of several non-profit organizations including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Writers & Books. Patrick lives in Pittsford with his wife, Kitty and their three enthusiastic English Setters.


Jeffrey M. Lyness, MD
Medical Director for Continuing Medical Education (CME)
585-275-4392
Jeffrey_Lyness@urmc.rochester.edu

A message from Pat

Greetings to each of you. I hope that one and all had joyous holidays with family and friends. It is my privilege to now be part of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. I look forward to an exciting journey of learning and contributing to the ongoing education of the individuals within this diverse community. It is my good fortune to have inherited a very capable staff. Going forward, please don’t hesitate to contact them or me with any questions you may have.

Also, a special thanks to Paul Lambiase who is now in semi-retirement. He served this institution admirably for many years. As we have worked together the past few weeks to achieve a smooth transition, he has been exceedingly gracious and forthcoming.  I wish him the very best in this new phase of his life.

I hope that 2011 brings you all much success, happiness and of course, productive learning.

News

In defense of legitimate relationships between physicians and industry

There has been a great deal of negative attention lately to relationships between physicians and industry. A front-page story in the Chicago Tribune newspaper in October was devoted to a list of all physicians in the Chicago area who received over $100,000 in compensation from the pharmaceutical industry in the past year. It does seem that something is awry when an individual practicing physician earns $250,000 from a drug company, but the reactions by the media, legislators, and some professional medical associations (PMAs) have demonized all relationships between physicians and industry.
Click here to read more...

The Scoop on CME

by: Melissa Newcomb, MBA, CCMEP, Assistant Director for Certification, UR CPE

Learning Objectives

In last month’s issue, we discussed strategies for developing a needs assessment, where you identify an area where practitioners can improve their clinical, educational or research skills for a continuing medical education activity. This month we move to the next step in the process: developing learning objectives.

Excitement for your upcoming CME conference is growing… the conference topic identifies the need (a problem in practice) and you have solid documentation to support that need. Next, the ACCME requires that you specify learner outcomes: What will attendees know or be able to do because they attended your CME conference?

Learning objectives describe these outcomes in measurable terms. Three characteristics are critically important to writing clear, learner-centered objectives: behavior, criterion, and conditions. The following example illustrates a learning objective that contains all three elements, “Perform and interpret (behaviors) a screening neurological examination (criterion) in a five-minute office visit (conditions).”

Because objectives need to be measurable, the choice of verbs is important. Broad verbs like “know” or “learn” are discouraged, as they are difficult to assess directly. Appropriate verb selection will depend on the type of CME activity you are planning and your subject matter. Simple verbs (list, describe, perform) may work for one learning activity, while more complex verbs (compare, evaluate, interpret) will be more appropriate for another.

Our Office is available to assist you in designing learning objectives that clearly convey the knowledge and skills that attendees will gain from your CME activity. A successful CME activity is driven by an identified critical need that is strongly supported through documentation and measurable objectives. Please stay tuned for next month’s issue when we will discuss the next critical element in the development of your CME activity: assessing outcomes of your CME activity.