Author: Brian S McGowan, PhD

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Surgeons General, the Institute of Medicine, and others have called for physicians to be role models for meeting the obesity epidemic. There are few published reports describing undergraduate medical education obesity curriculum elements. Physician experiences, knowledge, and attitudes have been shown to affect patient counseling behavior of physicians.METHODS:Required and extra credit obesity educational interventions were designed for third-year family medicine clerkship. For extra credit, students completed a personal weight management experience that spanned at least 4 weeks, included calculations of body mass index BMI, waist circumference, caloric needs, description of eating and physical activity and monitoring plan, and a final report and reflection.RESULTS:During 2011–2012, 72% of the students completed this extra credit activity with almost all losing or maintaining their weight. Most reflected gratitude for this opportunity and their increased empathy for patients as they struggle with weight issues.CONCLUSIONS:Medical students completing a weight management experience during their third-year clerkship can see the effects on their own health while developing empathy for and understanding of the weight management struggles of their patients. Minimal faculty time commitment is required.

via Teaching by example: educating medical students thro… [Fam Med. 2013] – PubMed – NCBI.

This article describes five major themes that inform and highlight the transformation of continuing medical education in the USA. Over the past decade, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and other national entities have voiced concern over the cost of health care, prevalence of medical errors, fragmentation of care, commercial influence, and competence of health professionals. The recommendations from these entities, as well as the work of other regulatory, professional, academic, and government organizations, have fostered discussion and development of strategies to address these challenges. The five themes in this paper reflect the changing expectations of multiple stakeholders engaged in health care. Each theme is grounded in educational, politico-economic priorities for health care in the USA. The themes include (1) a shift in expectation from simple attendance or a time-based metric (credit) to a measurement that infers competence in performance for successful continuing professional development (CPD); (2) an increased focus on interprofessional education to augment profession-specific continuing education; (3) the integration of CPD with quality improvement; (4) the expansion of CPD to address population and public health issues; and (5) identification and standardization of continuing education (CE) professional competencies. The CE profession plays an essential role in the transformation of the US CPD system for health professionals. Coordination of the five themes described in this paper will foster an improved, effective, and efficient health system that truly meets the needs of patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3791543/pdf/amep-4-171.pdf