CONTINUOUS MEDICAL EDUCATION (Past, Present & Future)
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INTRODUCTION
The healthcare industry is showing high growth rates in both developing and developed nations around the world. Education doesn’t come to an end once people are in the middle of their professional career. Because the healthcare industry is continuously evolving, technologies considered best practice today can change drastically in just the span of a decade. That’s why care providers have to regularly keep up with new techniques and technologies and expand their knowledge and skills – which means continuous education is not a nice-to-have but an absolute necessity for any healthcare professional who wants to provide high-quality patient care.
With growing advancement in health information and technology, physicians and all other health professionals must maintain updated knowledge and skills throughout their careers. That's the only way to provide safe, effective, and high-quality healthcare for their patients. Continuing Medical Education has been one of the principal activities of the Academy in its objectives aimed at keeping the health professionals updated with the developments in the field.
What is CME Programme?
The aim of the Continuing Medical Education programme is to provide opportunities to update knowledge, skills and practices of doctors and health professionals involved at different levels of health care delivery systems and or in biomedical research.
CME refers to educational events that have been approved for CME credits. CME credits are important to physicians because some states require a specified number of credits annually to maintain medical licenses, and because most hospitals require a specified number of credits for their physicians to remain qualified enough to treat patients.
?The objectives of the Continuing Medical Education programme are:
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The Continuing Education programme is implemented through:
These programmes are being implemented through the NAMS Zonal/State Chapters, Zonal conveners/State Liaison Officers, medical institutions, and, national professional associations. The CME Programme Committee guides and monitor the progress on a regular basis.
CME programme in India:
The Medical Council of India (MCI) is the national governing body responsible for the establishment and maintenance of high-standard medical education as well as recognition of medical qualifications. The MCI and the 26 State Medical Councils (SMCs) are the major CME regulators in India. They also accredit the CME events and allocate credits to the HCPs. Other CME regulators include the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Association of Physicians of India and individual certification programmes.
In April 2011, the MCI passed a resolution on CME, by which it was made mandatory for all doctors to attend a minimum of 30 hours of CME in every 5 years, failing which their registration to practice would be suspended. A physician should participate in professional meetings as part of a CME programme, for at least 30 hours every five years, organised by reputed professional academic bodies or any other authorised organisations. The compliance of this requirement shall be informed regularly to MCI or SMCs as the case may be.
The future:
With CME becoming mandatory in more and more countries across the globe it is easy to see the draw of accredited e-learning and online CME activities. CME has the ability to raise standards in all countries and allow for important information sharing. For example, doctors in India or Spain could take a CME course which was developed with input by a team from a reputed American medical research institution in collaboration with the patients they treated. This creates highly relevant CME while simultaneously strengthening the connection between research and clinical practice.
New digital technology provides ample opportunity for health professionals to access and engage with relevant CME based on their knowledge gaps and preferences. It shows a promising step towards establishing a well-connected community of content keepers healthcare educators, HCPs and patients that work together to meet a common goal of addressing critical healthcare challenges.
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