Continuing Medical Education: How CME Translates to Better Patient Care

those interested in providing better service to patients. CME sessions can take on many different forms, whether it be a one-day series of lectures focused on a particular topic or a multiple-day experience going over various topics with a number of different speakers. Regardless of the format, the goal remains the same – to provide education for physicians and other healthcare providers so that they may be the most informed and effective practitioners and educators possible. The Graduate School of Medicine offers multiple CMEs each year on a multitude of topics within the medical field. I talked with Dr. Amy Barnett, an internal medicine physician here at UTMCK, about the importance of CME and what she feels makes an effective CME session.

What do you look for when choosing CME opportunities? Is it based more off of interest or usefulness?

I look for conferences that are arranged over a period of 2-3 days involving multiple different types of CMEs. I also look for CMEs in locations where I would be interested in traveling so that when each day of the conference is finished, I can find places to explore and relax. I try to find CME opportunities that are useful to me and where I can learn up-to-date information on particular topics.

As healthcare providers, it is essential that we continue to increase our knowledge in order to provide the most up-to-date and high-quality patient care. Taking part in continuing medical education, otherwise known as CME, is one of the many ways in which we may accomplish this goal. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, otherwise known as the ACCME, is the organization responsible for sponsoring continuing medical education. They define CME as consisting of “educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession.” Content of CME ranges from topics on managing healthcare facilities to everyday practice management for

Points of View

DOCTOR SHORTAGE BY 2034 continued on page 2

What makes CME effective? What have been the more beneficial CMEs you have been to?

I feel that good presenters going over up-to-date information in a lecture format is most effective to me. I enjoy and feel like I learn more from lecture-style presentations more so than workshops. The most beneficial CME I have been to is the Primary Care Conference here. Actually, Dr. Wilson, one of the family medicine physicians, Dr. Ely (another internal medicine physician), and I coordinate the conference each year. It consists of various UT presenters and we get feedback from the previous years on how to make it better each year. It occurs once a year in early spring.

Rajiv Dhand, MD, Chair

Among the many problems created or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; the looming shortage of physicians in the United States is a matter of serious concern. The numbers are truly staggering; in the past three years, 18% of health care workers have quit their jobs! According to a 2020 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), there will be a shortfall of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians ten years from now. The gap will be felt across a broad range of specialties, but neurology, psychiatry and pulmonary and critical care medicine are projected to have the most significant shortages. However, the greatest need will be felt in primary care. The demand for primary care physicians and specialists trained to care for the aging population is growing because people over the age of 65 see their physicians much more frequently than younger people. The number of people aged 65 or above in the U.S. is projected to increase by a whopping 42.4% over the next decade! Unless we have more trained physicians, the ability of this elderly population to access the health care system will be compromised. At the same time, the aging of the physician population will further compound this problem. More than 40% of active physicians in the United States will be 65 or older within the next decade, according to the AAMC report. Add to this mix the high-rates of job-related stress and burnout intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for increasing the number of physicians in the United States to maintain a functioning, physicianled health care workforce becomes even more obvious. The solution for this looming problem lies in training more highly qualified doctors. Physicians spend many more hours in their training compared to other health care providers and there