Call for Submissions Reminder
2013 Building Bridges and Spanning Boundaries Award:
Innovative Institutional Partnerships in Research and Research-Focused Training

AAMC is announcing its second annual award developed in collaboration with the GREAT Group and GRAND leadership. The 2013 award will highlight innovative ways to create and sustain institutional partnerships in research and research-focused training.

Submissions must describe:
•    An existing or developing collaborative partnership between two or more:
a) departments, centers, or programs within a school,
b) schools within an institution, or
c) unaffiliated institutions;
•    New experiences and lessons learned from the collaboration; and
•    Institutional benefits resulting from the collaboration.

Entries will be evaluated based on creativity, collaborative partnerships, and impact on institutional practices.

Research and research training leaders and faculty in PhD, MD-PhD, and Postdoctoral programs, and of basic, translational, and clinical research, are encouraged to apply.

Self-submissions and applications on behalf of colleagues are welcome. Winner(s) will be announced at the 2013 GREAT Group Annual Meeting, September 19-21 in Atlanta. One or more awards to institutions for a total amount of $5000 will be awarded. All winners will be invited to present a poster at the GREAT Group Annual meeting. In addition, one or more winners will be selected to present an AAMC webinar.

Application available on the AAMC website - https://www.aamc.org/members/great/.

Application deadline: May 31, 2013

Application submissions and questions:
Jodi (Lubetsky) Yellin, Ph.D.
Director, Science Policy, AAMC
jyellin@aamc.org, 202-828-0485

After more than 43 years in the Office of Continuing Medical Education at Howard University, College of Medicine, Washington, DC, the Administrator, Thelma B. Chapman, M.Ed., will retire on June 30, 2013. 

A long-time member of SACME, she has assisted the office through its eleven re-accreditations, first by the LCCME, secondly, the AMA Council on Medical Education, and  currently,  the ACCME. 

The Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education is proud to announce that Moshe Feldman, PhD (Virginia Commonwealth University) and his colleagues (Dale Harvey, MS, RN, Patient Safety Fellow; Jenifer Murphy, MHA; John Boothby, MSW; and Paul Mazmanian, PhD) have been selected as the recipient of the Phil R. Manning Award for 2013.

On behalf of the SACME membership we would like to congratulate Dr. Feldman and his colleagues as they pursue their research on "Practice Based Learning to achieve systems based practice: An Interprofessional CE Model and Toolbox for Planned Practice Change."  

Thank you to everyone who submitted research projects for consideration this year.

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For additional information on the Manning Award, see SACME Research Grants.

WhyNotTheBest.org's interactive map has been updated to include the latest round of accountable care organizations (ACOs) to join Medicare's Shared Savings Program, bringing the total to 219 groups around the nation. You can track the spread of ACOs and other types of quality improvement activity and performance recognition through our series of map overlays.  

You can also use the map to explore performance variation among states, counties, and hospital referral regions on measures of health care quality, safety, outcomes, patient experiences, use of health information technology, and more.

For help using the map, watch this short video demo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJxBBQ_0pt8#omnicid=20.  Or check out this infographic  - http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Infographics/2013/Mapping-Performance-Variation.aspx?omnicid=20 - showcasing performance variation across the nation.

Dennis Wentz, longtime SACME member and editor of Continuing Medical Education: Looking Back, Planning Ahead announced recently that proceeds from this publication will be donated to the Society.  SACME appreciates his generosity and is proud that the assistance provided helped to lead to the successful publishing of this book.

You can access this book - and others by or recommended by SACME members - at our Books page.

Book description:

Continuing medical education (CME) is a mainstay for ongoing learning by practicing physicians. Often considered the third and final phase of medical education, CME differs significantly from earlier phases of training. Unlike medical school and residency/fellowship, CME requires physicians to respond voluntarily to their educational needs; there is no specified curriculum, and practice settings are all different.

The essays in this volume tell the history and evolution of CME in the United States and Canada, but also look toward future issues and developments. Contributors from a diverse array of institutions explore CME's emergence from undergraduate medical education and its separate growth and development, key events and breakthroughs, lessons learned, conflicts, and predictions about the future in their area of expertise. Addressing critical issues, such as industry support for CME, the volume offers a vital tool for continuing medical education professionals, physicians, administrators, and all health care practitioners interested in the future of continuous education and quality patient care.

SACME announces the open position of INTERCOM Editor and Associate Editors.  If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Executive Secretariat Jim Ranieri at 205-978-7990 or info@sacme.org. 

Information about INTERCOM is below:

The overall mission of INTERCOM is to provide the membership (a) with current news and information that will help them better function in their professional roles associated with CME in academic institutions and (b) with information about current Society activities.  Specific responsibilities of the individuals responsible for INTERCOM include:

1.  Establish an administrative structure to develop, manage, and produce INTERCOM.

2.  Identify individuals to act as assistant editors responsible for soliciting information regarding specific topic areas.

3.  Maintain contact with Society officers and committees to be aware of current activities that are potentially newsworthy.

4.  Follow substantive areas, issues, and topics likely to be of interest to the membership to be aware of current developments that are potentially newsworthy. 

5.  Work with the Executive Secretariat to obtain appropriate mailing lists and other production assistance.

6.  Work with Treasurer to develop and maintain financial arrangements, as needed. Oversee the budget and financial aspects of the publication, including communicating with the Secretariat regarding the development of the projected annual budget and reporting the actual annual cost of operations. 

7.  Help identify and secure funding support for INTERCOM.

The SACME Board of Directors approved the revised Policies and Procedures handbook during their meeting at the 2013 SACME Spring Meeting. The revision, led by Secretary Edeline Mitton from SUNY Downstate,is available at the SACME web site and is a document that all members are encouraged to download and review. 

The document provides guidance for SACME on issues including: Governance and Oversight, Officers' Roles and Responsibilities, Liaisons, Executive Secretariat Duties, Committee and Work Group Structure and Responsibilities, INTERCOM Mission and Responsibilities, an Organizational Calendar, and other routine procedures as well as special activities.

The document is a living and updates will be made on an as-needed basis.

Click here to download.

Presentations from the SACME Spring Meeting have been posted to the Members Only section of the web site.  Thanks to those that were in attendance!

Link to presentations.

Richard Rothstein, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) and Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education (CME) at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth (Geisel), and his colleague Mary Turco, EdD, Director of the Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences (CCEHS) and Continuing Medical Education (CME) at D-H and Geisel, have announced the appointment of Curtis A. Olson, PhD as the Director of Research and Evaluation in the CCEHS effective March 18, 2013. Dr. Olson will have an academic appointment at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and will augment Dartmouth’s infrastructure in education assessment and evaluation. His role will help educators by enhancing their understanding and reporting of the outcomes of educational endeavors.

Dr. Olson has a doctorate in adult and continuing education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and has been involved in healthcare professional education for over 20 years. Prior to his Dartmouth appointment, he was Head of Research and Development in the Office of Continuing Professional Development in Medicine and Public Health at the UW. In his former role, he directed an interprofessional team charged with developing the next generation of program planning and evaluation practices for educational interventions aimed at improving patient care. His personal research agenda focuses on understanding how clinical teams learn and change their practice and how that information can be used to develop continuing education that supports and facilitates practice change. Dr. Olson is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. As Editor, he contributes to the development of the national research agenda in continuing education and definition of standards for research and evaluation in the field.

The SACME Strategic Affairs Work Group, which included many members of the Board of Directors and committee chairpersons, met on March 22-23, in suburban Chicago at the American Academy of Pediatrics office, to discuss SACME’s strategic agenda and priorities. 

The strategic agenda logic model, which previously mapped out five key areas of focus for the Society, was used to guide this discussion and particular attention was paid to those initiatives which focus on building capacity internal and external to the Society.

More discussion regarding the tactics which align with these strategic directions will occur at the committee meetings taking place next week at the Spring Meeting in Madison.  We invite you to participate in the open committee discussions (see Spring Meeting schedule, event registration). 

Additional updates will be posted on the SACME website as they become available.

Group Pictures: