Mission Statement
The Stanford University School of Medicine is a premier research-intensive institution that improves health through collaborative discoveries and innovation in patient care, education and research. The school fosters a two-way transfer of knowledge between research laboratories and patient-care settings with faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, students, and physicians in the broader medical community and engages interdisciplinary efforts to translate this knowledge into practice.
Purpose
The purpose of the Stanford University School of Medicine continuing medical education (CME) program is to promote continuous improvement in patient health care by providing physicians and other health care professionals with high quality, evidence-based educational activities focusing on advances in medicine, new medical technology, biomedical research, and changes in the health care environment. The overall goal of the program is to improve physician knowledge and competency and enhance performance in practice.
Content
The content of Stanford's CME program includes a broad range of primary care, specialty and subspecialty topics that are determined through a comprehensive needs assessment process. The needs assessment process determines "gaps" in knowledge or performance, defined as the difference between current practice and best practice. Continuing medical education content will be appropriate to the target audience's current or potential scope of professional activities. CME activities will be planned in the context of desirable physician attributes and core competencies, and shall serve the best interests of the public.
Target Audience
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Local audiences comprised of community physicians as well as physicians from the system's affiliated hospitals.
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Other physicians in Northern California.
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Physicians from the United States and other countries in the world.
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Health care professionals as part of a multidisciplinary team.
Activity Types
Stanford offers a variety of CME activities, including the following:
- Regularly Scheduled Series
- Live Courses
- Skills Workshops
- Enduring Materials
Learning methods are selected based on the setting, identified needs, desired results, and learning styles of the target audience.
Expected Results
As a result of their participation in the Stanford CME program, learners will demonstrate changes in competence and/or improvement in performance-in-practice. Metrics for determination of success include the following:
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For changes in competence, outcomes assessments will determine that knowledge was gained, and/or confidence increased, and that a strategy was present for using the knowledge gained.
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For improvements in performance-in-practice, outcomes assessments will show that physicians implemented new behaviors in their practice that were intended as results of the educational activity.
Stanford Center for CME, 6/01/08
