Continuing Medical Education Mission
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
The University of Colorado Denver (UCD) School of Medicine (formerly University of Colorado School of Medicine) is part of the only academic health science center in the state of Colorado and a large portion of the Rocky Mountain region. As a school of medicine, we have over 800 full-time faculty and over 2,500 clinical faculty in a state of four million people, we envision that continuing medical education (CME) is a strategic asset of the UCD School of Medicine and its core clinical facilities, its full-time and clinical (volunteer) faculty, and physicians and other health care professionals throughout the region and the United States.
Purpose
Our fundamental purpose is to improve knowledge, competence, performance and health outcomes using lifelong learning through undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education. We will accomplish this through continuing medical education that:
• Is linked to practice and focused on health care quality gaps
• Supports physicians' maintenance of certification and maintenance of licensure
• Fosters collaboration within and among health professionals to address quality improvement
• Addresses interdisciplinary team practice
• Is independent of commercial interests
Content
Our content will be derived from needs assessments of our audience based, whenever possible, on best practices published by national or regional organizations. We will identify gaps in physician knowledge, competence , performance and outcomes through collaboration with other stakeholders. Specific content areas include basic science pertinent to clinical practice, diagnoses, treatment and prevention of disease, and health care maintenance. Throughout the core content we will include cross-cutting areas of medical ethics, medical economics, and physician attributes and competencies as described by the American Board of Medical Specialties, namely, professionalism, interpersonal communication and skills. To the maximum possible extent, we will develop CME activities that support patient-centered, evidence-based and team-based care.
Target Audience
Our audience consists of primary care and specialty physicians from our full-time and clinical (volunteer) faculty, physicians in the State of Colorado and the surrounding Rocky Mountain region, and physicians from across the United States . Medical care increasingly is carried out by teams, and we will work collaboratively with continuing education offices including our School of Pharmacy , College of Nursing , School of Dental Medicine and the Colorado School of Public Health to reach other health care professionals and develop inter-disciplinary, team-based education and training activities.
Types of Activities
We are committed to an enhanced scope of effective CME activities. In addition to regularly scheduled series and courses conducted by medical school departments and centers, we are developing innovative programs such as performance improvement, learning through teaching, learning through committee work, and point-of-care CME.
We will utilize existing and develop new tools to measure post-activity changes in patient safety and quality.
Expected Results
We expect different results for different groups within our target audience. For our full-time and clinical (volunteer) faculty, we expect to improve health care professionals' knowledge, competence, performance or health outcomes.
CME program effectiveness will be assessed by regular, systematic analysis of compliance with the 22 criteria established by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and will be conducted by the Office of CME, its CME Advisory Committee, its staff and its participants. Our goal is continued improvement of CME effectiveness through ongoing assessment and change.