"Delivering the best in continuing medical education requires a creative and top-notch team committed to fostering excellence in health care," said Claire Pomeroy, vice chancellor for human health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine. "I am proud of the dedication and work of the CME office, which ensured our reaccreditation by creating a robust learning environment for physicians and other health-care professionals from throughout the country."
Attaining this designation from the national Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education is a key indicator of a program's value and capabilities. The voluntary, self-regulatory system is maintained by the Chicago-based council, which identifies, develops and enforces standards for educational quality to improve health care for patients and their communities. Currently, there are approximately 740 accredited CME providers in the United States.
The process for reaccreditation is a lengthy one. The CME team, led by Pam Stotlar-McAuliffe (who recently retired) and Cheryl Nelson, spent nearly 18 months preparing a 664-page report that documented four years of program activities. The document addressed 22 criteria, including more than a dozen mandated elements and seven others that demonstrated the breadth and rigor of the UC Davis program.
"One of the things that makes our CME program stand out is the commitment we have made to innovative communication technologies such as interactive video teleconferencing and online self-study courses for training and instruction," said Thomas S. Nesbitt, associate vice chancellor for strategic technologies and alliances. "Our goal has always been to provide the best health-care expertise and education in the most accessible way possible. We're fortunate that UC Davis has a long history in telehealth and education because it's enabled us to embrace creative approaches to teaching and learning."
Since 2005, the CME office has offered more than 9,000 hours of instruction through 745 courses, from conferences and grand rounds presentations to online education and self-study learning modules. The variety of courses and their ease of access have attracted more than 160,000 participants over the last four years. Online grand rounds presentations, for example, currently draw about 30,000 participants annually, with attendees often taking several different sessions throughout the year. In addition to physicians, the CME program also serves a multidisciplinary team of health-care professionals through its courses.
UC Davis Health System is an integrated, academic health system encompassing UC Davis School of Medicine, the 613-bed acute-care hospital and clinical services of UC Davis Medical Center, the 800-member physician group known as UC Davis Medical Group, and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.