Principled Partnerships: Practical or Pipe Dream? #cmetaskforce

This morning at the 21st Annual Conference Of The National Task Force On CME Provider/Industry Collaboration, Dr. Darrell Kirch from the AAMC spoke about the culture of medical education.

He started by going into the history and culture of medical education and biomedical research. The culture of health care changed when Medicare entered and fee-for-service models changed the way physicians were compensated. Hospitals focused on the "margins" and hired academic physicians to boost procedures and patient volume capabilities.

Speaking of culture, what is the culture of industry? Industry is undergoing a culture change - similar to the cultural shifts that are occurring in health care and academic medicine. He spoke about the triple bottom line: profit, people, and planet. We need to have a balanced position around the cycle of  research, comparative effectiveness,  patient engagement, delivery system transformation, knowledge translation, etc. Let's rethink our approach to the medical education continuum. We must teach physicians so that they are focusing on improving patient care. We also need to change our health care reform culture and focus on medical homelessness. Unfortunately, most of the focus will revolve around health care costs.

If we compare the old vs. the new CME, we see that newer CME focuses on patient outcomes, systems-based education, and integrated educational initiatives. As we move forward, we will be developing principled partnerships and managing them over time. Then, we must affirm our integrity while fostering innovation.