This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

From the September 2005 issue of the Australian Family Physician comes yet another article on reflection:

Robertson K. Reflection in professional practice and education. Aust Fam Physician 2005; 34(9):781-783.

Abstract: Reflection is a crucial process in the transforming of experience into knowledge, skills and attitudes. As such it is at the core of both learning and continually evolving professional practice. This article draws on literature from adult learning and medical education fields to present a theoretical framework for reflection and practical techniques for its application in general practice. It is directed toward the training of medical students and registrars on clinical rotations, but also for the established general practitioner.

PubMed

Journal link [subscription may be required]

This post courtesy of Anne Taylor-Vaisey:

There are some items on the Web site that you may be interested in, and you can link to them from the What’s New in SACME page:

There are several new issues to view on the News for Medical & Adult Educators page:

AAMC Reporter

ABMS Record

Analysis in Brief

Cochrane News

Focus on Surgical Education

Medical Meetings

NLM Technical Bulletin

There’s another new player in webcasting surgical video: OR-live.com, which is recording on-request videos of various surgeries, both for the general public and for healthcare workers for CME credit, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A snip:

The Web site, devoted to surgical videos, is a product of slp3D Healthcast Network. Its first St. Louis-based program airs at 3 p.m. Friday. The pre-recorded debut features two Washington University surgeons, who teamed up earlier this month on the nation’s first two aortic abdominal graft repairs, using a new device made by Cook Group Inc.



The St. Louis video is Cook’s initial foray into open access, online surgical demonstrations. It won’t be the last.

The article says that Cook paid for the videotaping, and “its sales force will trumpet the video’s on-demand availability on the Cook and OR-Live Web sites.”

OK, is this a line-crosser or not? I’m not familiar enough with this particular area, but a device manufacturer paying for and promoting a surgical video featuring its products doesn’t sound right to me. I’m way too squeamish to actually watch the videos to see how potential conflicts are handled, but if you’re not, I’d be curious to know what you think.

Next time you go out to eat, check the pen the waiter gives you to sign the check—he may be trying to tell you something! (OK, I know this has nothing to do with CME or pharma meetings, but it totally cracked me up). Warning: Some PG-13 language is involved.

Link (thanks to

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Docs aren’t too good yet at identifying potential biological terrorism attacks, according to a study published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine and discussed in The Boston Globe (free reg. req’d). From the Globe article:

Trainee doctors misdiagnosed diseases caused by biological terror more than half the time, but an online program improved skills, a study has found.

While the study focused on residents and newly minted physicians, I’d put money on established docs not doing much better—they don’t treat many people with anthrax, plague, or smallpox, after all. CME providers, I hope you’re working to take up the slack here, especially since President Bush’s 2006 budget eliminates the $252 million line item, ”health professions training activities,” in the Health Resources and Services Administration that Congress pushed through last year.

That’s the question posed in this editorial from Academic Medicine October 2005; 80 (10). (Thanks to Anne Taylor-Vaisey for the pointer!)

Here’s an excerpt from the editorial by Michael E. Whitcomb:

During the past decade, members of the medical education community have devoted a great deal of time and effort trying to ensure that medical professionalism is being inculcated into medical students and residents. Indeed, an entire body of literature devoted to the topic has been created during that period, and many professional organizations, including the AAMC, have organized special conferences about professionalism or addressed that topic at their annual meetings. It is fair to say that the various aspects of medical professionalism, and how to teach and assess it, have been discussed repeatedly within the medical education community. So, where do things stand?



…We all have an important stake in seeing that this kind of learning occurs. It is time to stop focusing on the rule-based professionalism that dominates our current teaching. Instead, we must acknowledge the narrative basis of medicine and develop educational experiences that will allow students and residents to learn what it truly means to be a physician.

Link to the issue’s table of contents.

Read ‘em and weep: Implant Program for Heart Device Was a Sales Spur (from the New York Times, free registration req’d). From the article:

By January, about 80 cardiologists nationwide completed an evaluation run by the Guidant Corporation of one of its products, an improved electrical component, known as a lead, that connects an implanted cardiac device to the heart.



In exchange for implanting the lead in three patients and completing five survey forms, each physician received $1,000 from Guidant.




“The primary purpose of the study was to get feedback on how well the system worked,” said Dr. Wayne O. Adkisson, a cardiologist in Portsmouth, Va., who took part.




The program did generate feedback. But internal Guidant documents and e-mail messages provided to The New York Times suggest that the initiative also had another apparent goal - increasing sales of the company’s most sophisticated and expensive heart devices.

There’s a good place to start training faculty on how to really teach, not just drone, on Presentation Zen (a very cool blog on all things presenter, via Seth Godin). A snip of his quotes from “Ted MD”:

Most importantly: for a technical presentation the basics that you discuss in your presentation tips are really important: opening, informal tone, use a remote, work the room, using the blank screen feature, and, of course, Passion, Passion, Passion!!!

Actually, the posts are all really interesting, and well worth a pointer to the presenters you know and love (or, at least, hire).

From Medical Meetings’ September/October issue:

As part of its probe into the pharma industry’s system of awarding educational grants, the Senate Committee on Finance asked companies specifically about grants they had given to non-Accreditation Council for CME-accredited providers in the past five years. Does this mean that the Committee will look more favorably on grants to accredited organizations? While it is too early to say, Medical Meetings has learned that the Committee does recognize that the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support are strict and intended to keep things on the up-and-up. While grants given to ACCME-accredited organizations will not be excluded from scrutiny, the committee understands those grants were most likely legitimate and used for educational purposes. For more, click here.

And if I do say so myself, we have some pretty good stuff in this issue. Like Prescription for Peace. A snip:

Who would have thought that medical education could help bridge the divide between Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians? As CISEPO (Canada International Scientific Exchange Program), a Canadian-registered, non-governmental organization, has proved, CME can do more than bring doctors together to improve health outcomes in this war-torn region of the world. It can bring together doctors and help them see each other as people, neighbors, and even friends.

CME providers should find this one interesting as well: Getting to Yes: “The world of commercial support is changing, and CME providers find themselves frustrated and confused by all the new forms, online grant-request processes, and a dearth of people to turn to for help. Here’s some pharma execs’ advice for how to successfully navigate their new funding systems.”