The Emergency Physician and Knowledge Transfer: Continuing Medical Education, Continuing Professional Development, and Self-improvement

Abstract

A workshop session from the 2007 Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference, Knowledge Translation in Emergency Medicine: Establishing a Research Agenda and Guide Map for Evidence Uptake, focused on developing a research agenda for continuing medical education (CME) in knowledge transfer. Based on quasi-Delphi methodology at the conference session, and subsequent electronic discussion and refinement, the following recommendations are made: 1) Adaptable tools should be developed, validated, and psychometrically tested for needs assessment. 2) "Point of care" learning within a clinical context should be evaluated as a tool for practice changes and improved knowledge transfer. 3) The addition of a CME component to technological platforms, such as search engines and databases, simulation technology, and clinical decision-support systems, may help knowledge transfer for clinicians or increase utilization of these tools and should, therefore, be evaluated. 4) Further research should focus on identifying the appropriate outcomes for physician CME. Emergency medicine researchers should transition from previous media-comparison research agendas to a more rigorous qualitative focus that takes into account needs assessment, instructional design, implementation, provider change, and care change. 5) In the setting of continued physician learning, barriers to the subsequent implementation of knowledge transfer and behavioral changes of physicians should be elicited through research.

Educational and Research Implications of Portable Human Patient Simulation in Acute Care Medicine

“…Encompassing a broad array of technologies and techniques from haptic surgical task training and standardized patients, to screen‐based models and full‐body manikins for resuscitation training, simulation is diverse and continuously evolving 19 . One recent development, the adaptation of manikin technologies for portable operation, is impacting the training of personnel in time‐limited, error‐prone acute care fields such as emergency medicine (EM) 20 and trauma surgery 7 . Unencumbered by cables and wires, the latest manikin models (and older versions with after‐market modification) are being used to conduct simulation events outside of simulator‐housing centers and to deliver on‐site training in resuscitative procedures and teamwork behaviors.…”

Emergency Physician Training on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review

“…In this review, the measurement of both knowledge‐based and patient‐centered outcomes was suboptimal; thus, the most effective methods for EP knowledge uptake and practice change remain to be identified. Active and multifaceted approaches are generally recommended to overcome the barriers to translating educational interventions into bedside improvements, but further validation of the CATT, ED‐modified ACE, and Heads Up toolkits in changing physician practice is needed. The search identified several in‐progress mTBI‐specific knowledge translation (KT) projects .…”

Research priorities in surgical simulation for the 21st century

“…10 Within surgery, national societies such as the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) have also achieved consensus to develop research agendas in their respective fields. 11,12 …”