Overview

The purpose of this performance improvement (PI) initiative is to measure the effectiveness of the full day July 31^st CME program on Genitourinary Oncology. By collecting data before and after the CME activity, it will be possible to begin to evaluate the reach of continuing medical education into daily clinical practice. This PI initiative is designed to be accurate and minimally effect your time and clinical practice routine.

 Clinical practice quality improvement (performance improvement) is an integral part of delivering healthcare that yields improved patient outcomes.  Clinical practice behavior can be updated through effective continuing medical education activities. Individual physician performance may be measured through point of care data collection. The therapeutic management of a series of similar-diagnosed patients may be followed before and after a targeted continuing medical education program. Specific practice patterns may then be analyzed with respect to specific education.  

Point of care data analysis will be achieved using a web-enabled mobile pre-programmed secure device. This point-of-care performance improvement study includes 20 physicians collecting 10 points of data on 20 patients (10 on prostate cancer, 10 on renal cell carcinoma) three times throughout the program (once before the program, once two weeks after the program and once within 5 months after the program).  This study protocol is designed to satisfy the AMA Council on Medical Education’s rules governing how performance improvement activities are designated for CME credit.  Participants completing the entire performance improvement initiative are eligible to receive 20 AMA PRA Category 1 credits™.

This performance improvement program consists of three stages needed to earn 20 credits; 5 credits will be awarded for successful completion of each stage, and an additional 5 credits will be awarded for completion of all three stages. This program has been carefully designed to be time-efficient and is easily adaptable to your clinical practice routine.

Stage A: Learning from Current Practice Performance Assessment - “Assess current practice using identified performance measures, either through chart reviews or some other appropriate mechanism.”

In Stage A, prior to the July 31^st live CME program, physicians will use the pre-programmed iPod Touch device at the point of care to enter outcomes data in twenty consecutive patients, 10 with renal cell carcinoma and 10 with prostate cancer.

Stage B: Learning from the Application of Performance Improvement to Patient Care – “Implement an intervention based on the performance measures selected in Stage A, using suitable tracking tools”

In Stage B, after the data from the first set of twenty patients is analyzed, participants will receive targeted guidance based on the outcomes measured from stage A. Educational gaps identified from stage A present opportunities to individualize CME using the web-enabled iPod Touch device. Participants will also be able to use the Mentor Program to pose point-of-care questions to a select group of faculty mentors involved in designing the course.

Stage C: Learning from the Evaluation of the Performance Improvement Effort – “Re-evaluate and reflect on performance in practice (Stage B) by comparing to the assessment done in Stage A”

In Stage C, within five months following the July 31^st live CME program, participants will collect point-of-care outcomes data on twenty consecutive patients, 10 with renal cell carcinoma and 10 with prostate cancer, to assess the effectiveness of directed educational interventions on performance measures. The PI participant will be able to compare outcome measures collected from Stage A to those collected from Stage C.