Mission Statement
The Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University is a community-based, Veterans Affairs-affiliated medical school dedicated to providing high-quality medical education and postgraduate training programs to foster a skilled physician workforce to meet the unique healthcare needs of West Virginia and Central Appalachia. Building upon its medical education foundation, the school seeks to develop centers of excellence in clinical care, including primary care in rural underserved areas, focused and responsive programs of biomedical science graduate study, biomedical and clinical science research, academic scholarship, and public service outreach. The School is committed to fulfilling its mission by creating a diverse and inclusive academic community that is sustained in a collegial and nurturing environment of life-long learning.
MUSOM Continuing Medical Education is committed to fostering an environment rich in professional development opportunities for physicians and interprofessional healthcare teams as they pursue lifelong learning in medicine. Based on the context of desirable physician attributes and competencies, we provide state-of-the-art, evidence-based, innovative, and impactful healthcare education and research expected to improve physician knowledge, competence, performance and, ultimately, patient health and outcomes.
Purpose
Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine's Continuing Medical Education program is committed to serving the physicians of the state of West Virginia and the tri-state region by providing need driven educational activities which will support their ability to improve the quality of health care of all people of the region, especially those whose lives have been affected by illness, injury or life threatening events.
Content Areas
To achieve the purpose of continued improvement in the quality of health care, the CME Program will 1) assess the needs and desires of physicians in West Virginia and surrounding Appalachian regions through objective and subjective measures. Analyze reports of performance improvement and other review committees from individual hospitals and outreach sites and work with each to develop responsive CME activities which address regional and national health care problems. 2) Provide for practicing physicians educational experiences which will enhance their ability to provide and improve health care in West Virginia and surrounding Appalachian regions. 3) Continue, rekindle and support a climate of inquiry for physicians so that continuing medical education will be a life-long personal and self-rewarding endeavor. 4) Design and offer activities which will help physicians meet the requirements of various organizations or certifying boards and state licensing boards. 5) Facilitate and enhance CME throughout the state, region and nation through individual activities, joint sponsorship activities, exchange of information, outreach activities and internet activities. 6) Utilize telemedicine, the internet and intranet to enhance patient care and physician education in rural and urban sites. Beginning with a Letter of Consideration and questionnaire the CME Planning process consists of 6 modules: Planning Checklist, proposed agenda, budget, physical arrangements, commercial support letter(s) of agreement, learning objective development, linking needs to outcomes, including a declaration of planning independence and content validation.
Activities Provided
CME will provide educational activities which respond to the needs and interests of physicians (regularly scheduled series (RSSs) as hospital grand rounds, departmental conferences, and outreach events. Also included are annual meetings, professional development programs, research programs and jointly sponsored activities. The School is committed to providing innovative learning experiences for practicing physicians through interactive case studies available via intranet and programs offered via internet access. Activities provided will be evaluated on an individual basis or assessed quarterly or annually for achievement of learning needs.
Target Audience
Continuing Medical Education activities will be directed to primary health care physicians in West Virginia and the tri-state area (OH, KY, WV) and CME Outreach activities will be directed to physicians practicing in rural locations to provide meaningful, relevant and accessible educational experiences. Certain activities will also target sub-specialty areas as needs arise.
Expected Results
CME activities will be developed in accordance with the Accreditation Elements and Criteria, and University policies with the expectation of improving the health and healthcare of patients, short term and long term. Through identification of professional practice gaps (knowledge, competence, performance) we expect greater confidence in addressing clinical problems or their intent to change behavior (in physician competence, performance in practice or patient outcomes) (and addressing identified barriers to gap fulfillment) and apply newly acquired strategies in practice through presentation of these identified gaps in RSSs or other activities. Through evaluation of RSSs and other activities we expect improvements in clinical skills and patient outcomes. The presented outcomes will be identified as Tiered Outcomes – via participant evaluation feedback (standard evaluation and ARS), self evaluation via the standard evaluation or volunteered followup participation , quarterly clinical problem identification (addressed in scheduled RSS). As part of the annual CME Program review process feedback will be obtained from evaluations and focus group reviews by event chairpersons and participants. Necessary changes to activities will be made internally by conference chairpersons as a result of this feedback. The CME Policy on Effectiveness explains in detail steps to be used in obtaining participant feedback and how to initiate changes to activities. Necessary changes to the CME Program will be made as a result of a year-end review of the CME Mission; review of CME operational procedures; review of staff goals and CME Program goals; and finally a review of an optional impartial survey to faculty and participants assessing their view of the CME Program.
