A heartfelt congratulations to Lewis A. Miller, principal of WentzMiller & Associates, who was honored with the Precepts of Hippocrates Award in recognition of his international achievements in CME at the 10th Annual Meeting of the Global Alliance for Medical Education last week. People from 14 countries came to see him get his award–just kidding, they came for the conference, too. Which I hear was a good one this year (I didn’t get to go, but my editor, Tamar Hosansky, did). From the press release:

In presenting the award, Mark Evans, president of GAME and director of healthcare education at the American Medical Association (AMA), stated: “It is only fitting and proper on this 10th anniversary of GAME that we honor our founder [ed. note: Whoops, I missed the typo that said “funder” here! Fixed now], Lewis Miller. Through his vision and commitment, the international community has been strengthened, healers educated and patients‘ lives improved.” Miller‘s accomplishments in the field include the founding not only of GAME but also of the Alliance for CME for North American CME professionals. He has started medical publishing and education companies in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Australia and worked closely with professional medical societies and pharmaceutical company sponsors around the world.



He and his WentzMiller partner, Dennis K. Wentz MD, former head of CME at the AMA, are currently working on development of a worldwide program to improve healthcare through education of generalist doctors.

Anne Taylor-Vaisey points out this article in particular as one CME providers might find interesting:

Acad Med. 2005 Jul;80(7):680-4. Related Articles, Books

How can physicians’ learning styles drive educational planning?

Armstrong E, Parsa-Parsi R.

Harvard Medical School, Harvard Medical International, 1135 Tremont St., Suite 940, Boston, MA 02120.

As changes in health care delivery systems and in the global burden of disease call for a reassessment of how tomorrow’s physicians should be educated-indeed, for a reconsideration of the diversity of roles the physician should play-there is an immediate need to produce continuing medical education (CME) programs with real impact. Curriculum planners are questioning both the content of medical education and the methods of instruction and training. The product, or content, and the mechanism for its delivery have been defined and discussed, but a significant body of literature has shown that new knowledge does not necessarily lead to new behavior. Ample evidence exists in the CME literature to support the implementation of more active and self-directed learning strategies to promote the desired change in behaviors. The question, then, that is the focus of this article is how educational planning might be better guided by an understanding of how physicians learn within the continuing medical education domain. Revisiting the principles of David Kolb’s Learning Styles Inventory, the authors propose applying his experiential learning model to overall curriculum design work. The authors argue that promoting the application of all learning styles in sequence in an educational encounter is a most desirable approach, and that this approach to learning could extend far beyond individual learners to influence how every component of medical education is designed, from the individual lecture or class activity to entire courses or programs.

PMID: 15980086 [PubMed - in process]

From a quick skim, this is interesting!

Someone just e-mailed me to ask if I’ve encountered a meetings facility designed specifically/primarily with the medical/pharmaceutical industries’ needs in mind. It seems like I have, somewhere, sometime, but I can’t bring it to the front of my mind. If you know of such a thing, could you let me know?

I just recently heard from a recruiter who has quite a few positions open with medical education agencies in New York City, New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Positions include:

Director Editorial Services

Copy/Editorial Supervisor

Copywriter

Copy/Editorial Manager

Business Development Manager

VP Account Director

Medical Writer/Senior Medical Writers

Account Manager/Director

Program Director CME

Medical Director

Speakers Bureau Manager

Group Program Director

Associate Director Accreditation

If you are interested in learning more about any of these positions, e-mail Shannon Peryea and I’m sure she’d be glad to fill you in. And tell her I sent you.

The Alliance for CME now offers sample policies and forms for addressing the elements of disclosure and conflict of interest in the ACCME’s Standards for Commercial Support. It’s available to members for free (at the Alliance site under “Membership”); and it might be worth the $40 one-time fee for nonmembers to purchase a license to access the toolkit–I don’t know since I haven’t checked it out yet. But I’m sure they did their usual good job with it. According to the press release, “

The tool-kit will be updated when information becomes available.”

Just had a quick note from Anne Taylor-Vaisey that she’s updated the Society for Academic CME’s News for Medical & Adult Educators page:

There are new issues to read and you can even check world weather and time on this page!

Jim Ranieri has kindly scanned some early issues of INTERCOM, from 1987 to 1998:

The issues from 2000 are searchable internally, and are also searchable using SACME’s Google search. Simply type intercom along with a last name or other word.

The earlier issues are scanned as images and are therefore unsearchable. But I have put links to pages where you can find dates and then consult individual issues of INTERCOM:

SACME Meetings

SACME Past Presidents

History of the Society of Medical College Directors of Continuing Medical Education (SMCDCME): The First Twelve Years, 1976-1988

Interesting post over at the Pharma Marketing blog about Newsweek’s The Future of Medicine issue, which according to author John Mack, doesn’t look much brighter than the present when it comes to drug ads. Interesting read.

(Thanks to Debra for the pointer!)

This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey: Academic Medicine July 2005; 80(7)

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From the Editor

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Redesigning Clinical Education: A Major Challenge for Academic Health Centers

Michael E. Whitcomb

Acad Med 2005;80 615-616

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Featured Topic Research Reports

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Negotiating End-of-Life Decision Making: A Comparison of Japanese and U.S. Residents’ Approaches

Baback B. Gabbay, Shinji Matsumura, Shiri Etzioni, Steven M. Asch, Kenneth E. Rosenfeld, Toshiaki Shiojiri, Peter P. Balingit, and Karl A. Lorenz

Acad Med 2005;80 617-621

Residents’ End-of-Life Decision Making with Adult Hospitalized Patients: A Review of the Literature

Todd E. Gorman, Stephane P. Ahern, Jeffrey Wiseman, and Yoanna Skrobik

Acad Med 2005;80 622-633

“This is just too awful; I just can’t believe I experienced that…”: Medical Students’ Reactions to Their “Most Memorable” Patient Death

Jennifer Rhodes-Kropf, Sharon S. Carmody, Deborah Seltzer, Ellen Redinbaugh, Nina Gadmer, Susan D. Block, and Robert M. Arnold

Acad Med 2005;80 634-640

Neda Ratan! awongsa, Arianne Teherani, and Karen E. Hauer

Acad Med 2005;80 641-647

“It was haunting…”: Physicians’ Descriptions of Emotionally Powerful Patient Deaths

Vicki A. Jackson, Amy M. Sullivan, Nina M. Gadmer, Deborah Seltzer, Ann M. Mitchell, Mathew D. Lakoma, Robert M. Arnold, and Susan D. Block

Acad Med 2005;80 648-656

Teaching and Learning End-of-Life Care: Evaluation of a Faculty Development Program in Palliative Care

Amy M. Sullivan, Matthew D. Lakoma, J. Andrew Billings, Antoinette S. Peters, Susan D. Block the PCEP Core Faculty

Acad Med 2005;80 657-668

The Palliative Care Clinical Evaluation Exercise (CEX): An Experience-Based Intervention for Teaching End-of-Life Communication Skills

Paul K. J. Han, Lisa B. Keranen, Dianne A. Lescisin, and Robert M. Arnold

Acad Med 2005;80 669-676

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Articles

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How Can Physicians’ Learning Styles Drive Educational Planning?

Elizabeth Armstrong and Ramin Parsa-Parsi

Acad Med 2005;80 680-684

Teaching Evidence-Based Medicine: Should We Be Teaching Information Management Instead?

David C. Slawson and Allen F. Shaughnessy

Acad Med 2005;80 685-689

Responsibly Managing the Medical School-Teaching Hospital Power Relationship

Frank A. Chervenak and Laurence B. McCullough

Acad Med 2005;80 690-693

Self-Reflection in Multicultural Training: Be Careful What You Ask For

Jann L. Murray-Garcia, Steven Harrell, Jorge A. Garcia, Elio Gizzi, and Pamela Simms-Mackey

Acad Med 2005;80 694-701

The Irony of Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care

Mark Cummings and Kathleen J. Dobbs

Acad Med 2005;80 702-705

Considering the Culture of Disability in Cultural Competence Education

Gary E. Eddey and Kenneth L. Robey

Acad Med 2005;80 706-712

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Medicine and the Arts

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Blindness

Jose Saramago

Acad Med 2005;80 678

Commentary

Tony Miksanek

Acad Med 2005;80 679

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Cover Note

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Indiana University School of Medicine

Pamela Su Perry

Acad Med 2005;80 677

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Teaching and Learning Moments

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Resident Teaching: A Tale of Two Places in Time

Lynn D. Wilson

Acad Med 2005;80 705

Need any more evidence that biotech is one hot field these days? Check out the BIO 2005 conference. From The Philadelphia Business Journal

The convention broke an attendance record with 18,730 people coming to the city from 61 countries. Records were also set at this year’s event for the number of one-on-one business partnership meetings, 7,200, and the number of exhibitors, 1,525.



“The energy level is the same this year,” said [Mickey Flynn, the president of Malvern-based Puresyn Inc.]. “It’s magnified because there are a lot more people. … People understand biotechnology more now, but I think we still have a long way to go to educate people. ”

The only downside was that a policeman “apparently died from a heart-related ailment while trying to end a scuffle with anti-biotech protesters outside the convention center.” With the industry still viewed as controversial, protesters are likely to be a part of the picture for the foreseeable future.

If your meeting might draw an unfriendly crowd, check out this article.

A loyal reader is looking to relocate, and would appreciate any tips for med ed openings in California. If you know of any, or any good recruiters in that area, please let me know and I’ll pass it along. Thanks!