A Model Letter to ATS from the Chair of a CME Planning Committee
In order to assure ACCME requirements for instructional design are met ATS
1. Requires a phone call between the Education Programs Unit (usually the CME
Director) and the head of the planning committee.
2. Provides a Teaching by Design tool for faculty to plan the instructional aspects of
their topics and to share information with the planning committee.
3. Asks the planning committee chair to review the contents of the Teaching by
Design tools and to integrate it into committee planning.
4. Requires a letter from the CME chair with attached individual faculty planning
tools as a prerequisite for CME designation. For jointly sponsored activities the
letter is part of the application. For CME that ATS plans directly, the letter is also
required before designation although there is no formal application form.
The following model letter is intended to convey minimum requirements of ACCME and
ATS as well as a number of planning strategies they go beyond this minimum. In the
future ATS hopes to provide training in some of these strategies as part of a master
teacher’s curriculum. If you have any questions about the letter or the master teacher’s
program do not hesitate to call or write: rmakleff@thoracic.org 212 315 8644.
Your Stationery can be used
Date:
To: Rachel Makleff, Ph.D.
Director, Tactical Management and CME Development
The American Thoracic Society
RE: NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN PLANNING FOR
THE THIRTEENTH ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC SESSION OF THE XXX THORACIC
SOCIETY TO BE HELD xxxx in xxx
Dear Dr. Makleff:
Please add this record of our CME planning process to our application/ CME file.
[Required (see eg(s) below) Disclosure by the planning committee to each other
before discussion of topics and faculty begins is an ACCME requirement. Please
begin your letter by describing below how this was accomplished.]
Aided by our Chapter administrator, each planning committee member was able to
review a summary of our conflict of interest disclosures at our very first meeting on xxxx.
Our CME Committee chair reviewed the disclosures and determined there was nothing to
manage/and determined that Dr. xx and Mr. XX would recuse themselves if certain topics
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were discussed. As we did not know in advance what topic we would select we decided
to work on the topics by consensus, thus avoiding any appearance of bias.
[Required (see eg(s) below) Let us know how many times you worked on the CME
part of the event to identify learning needs and design teaching and evaluation].
We then finalized the program based on our subsequent deliberations and the availability
of key faculty. Further discussion of the content of the activity occurred via phone
conference call on XXX 09 etc etc
[Identification of learning needs]
[Required (see eg(s) below) At a minimum (1) document you are basing content on
what your own learners need to learn (2) document whether this is to be pure
knowledge transfer or an improvement in their ability to do something as a result of
your offerings (improvement in competence or practice or improvement in patient
outcomes.] The Teaching by Design Form you will mail to faculty (and that faculty
will e mail back to you) should help you. You should be summarizing some key
points from individual faculty Teaching by Design Form submissions in this letter to
ATS. ]
To begin our planning for content, the XXX Thoracic Society CME Planning Committee
for this event reviewed evaluations from the twelfth annual scientific session noting
topics for future conferences requested by participants. We are enclosing last year’s
comments from learners as to what topics they wished to see next time. We have circled
requests that found their way into this year’s sessions. We are committed to improving
the practice of our own learners and based some of our judgment on questions physicians
have recently asked faculty and members of the planning committee as we interacted
with them formally or informally discussing difficult cases. As you know, a number of
us hold academic appointments and we also based our selection of topics and speakers on
our own expertise.
[Not absolutely Required (see eg(s) below) Highly recommended to keep up with
emerging expectations of ACCME and reviewers of educational grant applications.
The following are possible approaches a planning committee can take. Please
consider them and if you have any questions about them contact ATS.]
We held a second planning call on xxx where we discussed the most current medical
literature together looking for documentation of professional learning gaps. This
included xxxx in the Journal of xxx demonstrating that only 14% of physicians surveyed
by the xx Foundation follow the national guidelines on xxx. We also noted increased
prevalence of xx and breakthroughs in therapies for this condition and new guidelines for
the management of xxx. We have attached a list of citations/article/report.
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We also approached a number of leaders in the fields of pulmonary and critical care
medicine and sleep outside of our committee. We asked them to identify for us topics
that were emerging as state of the art and from which our members could benefit.
The physicians interviewed were:
1.
2.
3.
They helped us identify the following issues:
Because of the increased prevalence of xxx and breakthroughs in therapies for this
condition ..
Because of new guidelines of xxx
Because of findings that it is very difficult to follow guidelines for xx in the ICU
Because of a newly released report by xx on off label use of xx
[Required (see eg(s) below) Target audience and scope of practice]
We also discussed the target audience that will include a wide variety of experienced
practitioners, new graduates and research fellows and allied health professionals working
in the field of lung health. We have geared the content to correspond to the scope of
practice of each type of attendee. We also have a session on how these various
professionals can work together as a clinical team.
We will administer a pretest to an early group of registrants and share findings with
faculty so they can customize their presentations accordingly. This will also allow us to
assign learners to different break out sessions based on their previous mastery of the
content and or their professional training.
[Required (see eg(s) below) Teaching format]
Finally, we discussed the teaching format. It seemed a combination of lecture, panel
discussion, interactive question sessions and case review would best cover the material in
a way to engage the audience, clarify the content, and stimulate changes in practice. We
also considered a hands on laboratory approach for xxx. We will have on hand an expert
radiologist and an expert pathologist to elucidate case material.
[Required (see eg(s) below Desired Result of the CME. Part (1): let us know how
your offerings fit into ACGME and IOM competencies]
Our course content relates to the following ACGME competencies
Patient Care
Medical Knowledge
Practice-based learning and improvement
Interpersonal and communication skills
Professionalism
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Systems based practice [letter will select those that are relevant]
In addition, our course content relates to the following IOM competencies:
Patient Centered Care
Work in Interdisciplinary Teams
Evidence-Based Practice
Quality Improvement
Informatics [letter will select those that are relevant]
[Required (see eg(s) below) Desired result part (2): let us know whether this is
knowledge transfer or improvement in competence, practice or patient outcomes]
This is pure knowledge transfer based on very important scientific breakthroughs using
laboratory animals. OR
This is both knowledge transfer and increase in competence. By learning immediately
(pre-publication) about this important breakthrough (based on experiments on laboratory
animals) the physicians and medical scientists in attendance will have increased
competence in their own research path and laboratory techniques. OR
This is a change in practice that is hard to measure via chart review or observation. We
therefore went the route of measuring changes in competence via case vignettes.
As the presentation on national guidelines for xx x will address recommended changes in
practice with broad acceptance as evidence-based medicine we have asked Dr. xx to write
a few case vignettes based on specific changes in medical management recommended in
the guidelines. These vignettes will be used to drive home key points and to evaluate in
real time whether the learners have grasped the changes in strategies recommended by
the guidelines. While the desired result is change in practice we will measure change in
competence.
[Required (see eg(s) below) Evaluation tool This is your minimum per ATS
standard]
We will use the ATS evaluation tool which probes for bias and has the learner self report
any changes he intends to make in his practice as a result of the CME. We will augment
this tool by pre-test post test. In our invitation letter to faculty we enclosed the Teaching
by Design form and asked for specific learning objectives that we will place in the
relevant section of our evaluation tool. We have also asked our faculty to each submit a
pretest question or two.
[Not Required but highly recommended (see eg(s) below]
In the future we will see increasing use of the following evaluation strategies that are
currently optional but highly recommended: before and after confidence in the
management of xxx, commitment to change contracts, audience response systems which
capture individual and aggregate answers in real time and which print out reports.
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We have access to/are applying for a grant to support use of an audience response system.
This will help us gather valuable data on change in learner knowledge and competence.
OR
We have applied for a grant to perform chart review
OR
We will integrate this CME with a quality improvement learning collaborative in
conjunction with the xxxxx Managed Care Consortium and xxx Foundation. This will
involve gathering data on learner practice including check lists on their processes in their
hospital, medical outcomes of their patients, satisfaction of patients through survey,
specialized patient self management tools, innovative patient education and development
and use of a patient registry.
In closing,
It is our belief that our CME offering will enhance participant ability to engage in
scientific research/better manage their patients.
If there are any questions regarding our needs assessment and planning procedures,
please feel free to contact me directly at ( ) xxxx.
Sincerely yours,
XX XX, M.D.
Chair , XX XX Planning Committee
Enclosures:
o Last year’s evaluation form/member survey form. Topics suggested that found
their way into our offering this year are highlighted.
o Citations demonstrating need for topics selected
o Articles
o New guideline from CDC
o The pre-test instrument post test instrument
o A description of the learning collaborative
[ Re: attachments to the letter: Please note that with dissemination in September 2006
of Updated Criteria, ACCME has put less emphasis on multiple sources of data and more
on in depth documentation of the planning as illustrated by the CME activity work up
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sheet Teaching by Design that ATS now provides. We ask that at a minimum, the
previous year’s suggested topics if you selected them be submitted with this letter. Any
additional citations or articles would, of course, be highly interesting and much
appreciated. Also, please note that as the planning committee you have the prerogative to
fill in any part of the Teaching by Design Tool yourselves before sending it on to invited
faculty i.e. you have the prerogative to give faculty directions.]
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