CME Subcommittee Chair: Arthur Frank, MD, MSPH
GME Subcommittee Chair: Linda Hill, MD, MPH
Review Course Co-Chairs: Eric Evenson, MD, MPH and Gershon Bergeisen, MD, MPH
EPA Task Force Chair: Roy DeHart, MD, MPH
Joint Council of Residency Program Directors Chair: Sindy Paul, MD, MPH

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The Education Committee is scheduled to meet by telephone conference call on November 2. Meeting by conference call prior to the meetings of the CME and GME subcommittees has proven to be very useful, giving the subcommittee chairs an opportunity to review their activities and receive input from others, and to plan their upcoming subcommittee meetings and activities.

Major activities of the subcommittees and staff since the March 2000 meetings have included:

Continuing Medical Education

• The ACPM Review Course curriculum was submitted to the American Board of Preventive Medicine for approval as a recertification module. Approval was granted for the full course to serve as a 40 hour module; components of the course were approved as portions of a module depending upon the amount of time for which an applicant subscribes. For example, the Institute on Review and Recertification in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at PM2001 is approved for 10 hours toward the 40 hour module of the course.

• As part of the plan to establish "ACPM Institutes" as regular events at the ACPM Preventive Medicine meetings, the ACPM Institute for Review and Recertification: Biostatistics and Epidemiology, is scheduled for February 22. This will be a full day (eight hours) session, and, as noted above, approval has been granted for partial module credit toward recertification by the ABPM.

• ACPM conducted its 13th Annual Review Course, August 26 - 30 in Arlington, VA. Registration continues to hold around the 200 mark, with 190 participants this year. We are seeing a trend in attendees taking the course for CME purposes, although the main purpose still remains exam preparation. A number of new faculty members were in place this year, and they all performed well; the individual session and overall evaluations gave high marks to the course. A survey of participants is planned immediately after the examination.

• The 14^th Annual Review Course will be held August 25-29, 2001. After a five year stay in Washington, DC, however, the course will be held in Denver, CO, for at least one year.

• ACPM provided joint sponsorship for the following educational activities: h ASTHO/NACCHO Annual Meeting in July

- 2 meetings of the American Running and Fitness Association (the Boston Marathon session in April and the Marine Corps Marathon in October)

- ASTHO (and others) 3^rd Annual Conference on Genetics and Public Health in September

- the U.S. Military Institute Forum in September.

• Work is progressing on the Environmental Health Education series, made possible through our cooperative agreement with ATSDR. Please refer to the separate report for details about the impact of the ATSDR cooperative agreement on the ACPM educational programming.

• The educational modules developed under the EPA contract, and intended for distribution to other medical specialty societies, state medical societies, hospitals, etc., are expected to be completed by January 2001.

- The continuation application for the ACPM/HRSA Cooperative Agreement was submitted in September. In addition to the annual residency directors workshop, ACPM identified a number of additional activities to strengthen preventive medicine residency programs. These proposed activities, summarized below, will be prioritized by the Education and GME committees, in cooperation with HRSA.

- Workforce Study – Consistent with recent COGME recommendations, ACPM proposes to convene key stakeholders to begin planning a study to enumerate the preventive medicine workforce and the need for preventive medicine professionals.

- Expansion of GPM/PH Competencies – Developing GPM/PH competencies in addition to the core preventive medicine competencies, the aerospace medicine and the occupational medicine competencies will strengthen GPM/PH residency programs, enable the programs to move quickly into line with new requirements from the RRC/ACGME, and improve the marketability of preventive medicine physicians.

- Analysis of Innovative Training Models – New training models (e.g., distance-based residency training) offer the promise of expanding the number of physicians entering preventive medicine, but the impact of these programs needs to be evaluated thoroughly.

- Enhancing Technology for Dissemination of Residency Training Information – This support would enable ACPM to fully satisfy and streamline the numerous requests it receives for information about preventive medicine residencies, both from individuals and institutions.

- In-Service Training Examination – ACPM has worked closely with the residency directors to develop an in-service examination for residents, and HRSA support would ensure that this becomes institutionalized to improve residency training, including in programs not funded by Title VII.

- Training Resources Clearinghouse – Residency programs have asked to establish a clearinghouse of training materials that would give programs access to the best materials available and would relieve programs of the burden of reinventing materials and content that already exists elsewhere.

- Technical Assistance for Program Accreditation – Many programs have requested assistance, perhaps through site visits by other program directors, in meeting RRC and ACGME accreditation requirements.

- Demonstration Projects to Satisfy New ACGME Requirements – New ACGME requirements for all medical specialties emphasize prevention and population-based competencies, and preventive medicine residencies are well-situated to assist other residencies in meeting these requirements.

• The 7th Annual National Workshop for Residency Program Directors is scheduled for November 12, 2000. The GME subcommittee provides leadership and direction to the planning committee in the development of this workshop. The RRC and ABPM will provide most of the focus for this meeting, with presentations from Jeff Davis, MD, MS, the new chair of the ABPM and RRC. He will discuss implementation of the new RRC requirements as well as the new focus on competency-based education and resident assessment and evaluation by the American Board of Medical Specialties.

• Planning is underway for the 8^th Annual National Workshop for Residency Program Directors which will be held February 21-22, 2001, in conjunction with Preventive Medicine 2001.

• The national in-service examination for preventive medicine residents has been given twice (December 1999 and July 2000) and is scheduled again for December 2000. A total of 345 residents have taken the exam and residency director feedback has been quite positive. Under the leadership of Dr. Linda Hill, this program provides an outstanding service to the training programs and great visibility for ACPM.

• In response to the Board of Regents’ stated priority to support efforts to increase funding for residency programs, the Preventive Medicine Residency Funding Task Force was established. It includes members of the Policy Committee, Education Committee, GME Subcommittee, and others. It is chaired by Dr. Gary Goldbaum, and is staffed by Mike Barry and Jessica Cafarella. Refer to the Task Force action plan and report, elsewhere in the agenda book, for details on the extensive plans for this group.

- The Joint Council was convened in March 2000. The directors are working on the feasibility of establishing a match program; residency directors have been called upon numerous times over the past year to respond with letters to Congress about the GME funding situation for preventive medicine; and the Joint Council chairperson, Dr. Sindy Paul, has served on the planning committee for the ACPM/HRSA annual workshop for residency directors. Dr. Paul also attended the Forum meeting in July on behalf of the residency directors, as well as a meeting in September with the ACGME and ABMS about new core competency requirements.

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