The new curriculum is being designed by a group of physicians at Stanford who have a special interest in new educational approaches. It will focus on interactive methods, rather than the traditional CME method of passive, lecture-based courses, as studies have shown interactive learning is a far more effective way for improving physician practice, Jackler said.
The teaching program will capitalize on Stanford s wide-ranging technologies in immersive and simulated learning. These include new facilities at the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge, set to open in 2010, where physicians can test different patient scenarios in a fully simulated hospital, among other activities.
Curriculum topics will be chosen based on areas of practice determined by Stanford as having room for improvement, Jackler said. For instance, it may target efforts to reduce surgical infections, improve diabetes management, help prevent patient readmissions for heart failure and increase patient use of smoking-cessation programs. The goal of the teaching program is to produce measurable improvements in patient care.
It will be used for what CME is actually meant for to improve the ability of learners to provide better and more efficient health care for their patients, said Harry Greenberg, MD, the school s senior associate dean for research.
If we really help physicians do best practices, that improvement in health care will be good for industry as well as for patients, he added. It seems to me that Pfizer is saying, Maybe there is something to this. Let s put some money behind it and try it. At some point, industry officials will have to decide if the money they put in serves their purpose.
Unlike past CME programs, which typically are held at resorts or hotels, the new CME curriculum will seek to attract physician/learners from around the world to the Stanford campus, taking advantage not only of Stanford s teaching facilities but of the other cultural attractions on campus as well, Jackler said.
Source: Stanford University School of Medicine