Becoming a physician doesn’t mean that the learning ends when an MD or DO degree is conferred or when a residency or fellowship is completed. Physicians must learn throughout their lives to provide the best care possible for their patients.
That’s where the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV Continuing Medical Education (CME) program enters the picture. With a stated mission of advancing medical professionals as lifelong learners, the program is committed to providing high-quality, evidence-based professional development opportunities intended to increase physician competence through individual and team strategies, skills, performance, and care coordination, which in turn improve patient health outcomes.
The initial impetus for the CME program came from Dr. Elissa Palmer, professor and chair of the department of family and community medicine and interim assistant dean for continuing medical education. Palmer, who had experience with CME programs dating back to 1996, decided it was time that the school looked into granting CME credits. She began to do just that on her own and then “the dean found out about it and appointed me to get it done.”
The first step was achieving accreditation status for the school. “This was my first foray into doing that,” says Palmer, “although I knew what it meant to get CME accreditation, and it was just a matter of looking at which organization. So we picked the gold standard, which is the ACCME [Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education].”
Fast forward through an expedited process for accreditation and the school was awarded provisional accreditation on July 24, 2023. The accreditation allows the school of medicine the ability to grant AMA PRA [American Medical Association Physician's Recognition Award] Category 1 Credit™.
“Previously, we had to go through an application and payment process for each activity to get credit from an outside accredited organization, otherwise we would just be doing activities with no credit. Now we grant credit for Grand Rounds, for the Research Series conducted by Dr. [Deborah] Kuhls, and for activities in the different departments.”
The infrastructure for the CME program started with a nearly $1.3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which the Southern Nevada Health District awarded to the school of medicine. Dissemination of activities about COVID-19 was not only the reason for the grant, but the motivating factor to jump start the process and “be able to fight against all the misinformation that was in the media. We had to have something fast, be able to get it out to the rural institutions, be able to work together on this and CME was of great interest. The school needed this. We didn't have any infrastructure for CME,” says Palmer.
In Nevada, the average physician needs 40 hours of CME credits every two years and the CME has to meet different requirements and include special topics. Some physicians have different requirements depending upon their specialty board certification. “It's got to be medically related and impact patient care,” Palmer says.
When physicians attend a CME activity, they are provided a QR code at the end which leads them to a software program called CME Tracker. They create an account in CME Tracker where they can monitor all of the medical school approved CME activities they’ve attended, complete surveys on the activity, print their CME certificates, register for school of medicine accredited CME activities, and much more.
"An important aspect of granting CME credit is making sure that physicians are not only learning from the activity, but implementing what they learn in practice. At the end of sessions, we encourage the attendees to note three things learned that they can apply and implement in clinical practice using SMARTIE goals [Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely, Inclusive, Equitable],” says Palmer. “Then, three months later or so for select activities, we send an email to the attendees following up on their implementation plan. We inquire about goals, changes in practice, discussion of topics with partners or staff, further reading … options in a dropdown menu and a comment box. We get that feedback to assess activity impact and to see whether or not things could have been done differently in the CME.”
The physicians are not the only ones assessing activities. The CME program team evaluates the data from the activities to make sure they are meeting AACME standards. The team, in addition to Palmer, is comprised of Mark Guadagnoli, senior associate dean for faculty affairs and director of learning & performance; David Sakala, CME director; and Hannah Johnson, CME manager.
“Hannah, David, Dr. Guadagnoli, and I would look at the data and say, ‘Was this successful? Was it impactful?’
"We achieved initial provisional accreditation in July of 2023. We are going to get another visit in 2025 … So there's a constant continuous adherence to accreditation standards that's going on in addition to an annual review. If we do well in the next accreditation in 2025, then we may be granted four years accreditation.”
Even though the CME program is still in its infancy, it scored a major win in February 2024 by providing CME credit for and hosting the NFL Health & Safety Super Bowl Medical Summit at the Kirk Kerkorian Medical Education Building. The event featured notable speakers including Dr. Allan Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, and his team with sessions regarding injury prevention, concussion review, and emergency management strategies.
“Months in the planning for the daylong event, we worked with each speaker and coordinated with the school,” says Palmer. “Yes, I would say that activity is one of which we are very proud. But in addition to that, the research series and Grand Rounds certainly have been amazing. And now we have groups of faculty creating four-session CME mini-series on select topics.
"I mean, to think that only in July, we only got accredited, right?”
