Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Stanford gets $3 million from Pfizer for CME (but it's not what you think)

Stanford University has received a $3 million educational grant from Pfizer. The funds are to go into developing continuing medical education (CME) activities for physicians. What's rather ironic is that in September 2008, "Stanford became the first medical school in the country to limit industry influence on continuing medical education programs by accepting industry support only for a broad range of activities, not for specific, designated programs."

The latest $3 million received from Pfizer was under a new model of medical education.
Under the new model, Stanford will use a new, $3 million, three-year grant from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer to design and implement a novel curriculum that uses a variety of advanced technologies and teaching methods, including simulated and immersive learning tools. The Pfizer grant comes with no conditions, and the company will not be involved in developing the curriculum...
The new curriculum is being designed by a group of physicians at Stanford who have a special interest in new educational approaches. It will focus on interactive methods, rather than the traditional CME method of passive, lecture-based courses, as studies have shown interactive learning is a far more effective way for improving physician practice...
Curriculum topics will be chosen based on areas of practice determined by Stanford as having room for improvement, Jackler said. For instance, it may target efforts to reduce surgical infections, improve diabetes management, help prevent patient readmissions for heart failure and increase patient use of smoking-cessation programs. The goal of the teaching program is to produce measurable improvements in patient care.
Read more at Stanford's website.
You can also read the 15-page proposal here.

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