David Pieper (Wayne State University School of Medicine); Robert Addleton (Physicians Institute for Excellence in Medicine); Adele Cohen (Physicians Institute for Excellence in Medicine); Robert D’Antuono (Winthrop University Hospital); Sue Ann Capizzi (American Medical Association); Kimball Mohn (Association for Hospital Medical Education)
The Association of Hospital Medical Education (AHME) received funding from Pfizer to support CME projects in AHME member hospitals. The funding was not specified for any specific disease or condition. Each AHME CME-accredited grantee designed their own CME project and issued their own CME credit. Each grantee was required to identify physician knowledge and performance gaps in clinical areas prioritized by their hospital. This information formed the basis for developing local CME activities based on locally-identified needs assessment and performance gaps.
The objective of the program was to provide financial incentive, training and support for AHME member hospitals to plan and execute CME activities with higher level outcomes including Performance Improvement CME.
AHME sent a request for grant proposals to all of its member hospitals. Proposals were reviewed by a committee consisting of members of AHME with expertise in CME. Sixteen AHME member institutions were selected for funding amounts ranging from $3,000 to $10,000. The hospitals then received assistance with designing and executing the projects.
Fourteen hospitals initiated the projects and all of these institutions documented an improvement in targeted clinical parameters. Eight hospitals had practitioners completing all three stages of PICME (4 to 18 practitioners per hospital).
In summary, we describe an industry funded initiative organized through a medical society which accomplished the goal of providing financial support, training and support for CME activities designed to improve physician performance. This project was unique in that it was not disease or condition specific and the CME providers chose their projects based on their hospital health care gaps.
Declaration
Project supported by Grant from Pfizer to AHME
