Chair: Don Gemson                                               Staff: Jessica Cafarella, Ginger Anderson

GME Subcommittee Chair: Gary Goldbaum

CME Subcommittee Chair: Arthur Frank

Since its May 2001 report to the Board, the Education Committee and related subcommittees have focused on: (1) revamping the Education section of the ACPM website; (2) conducting the August 2001 in-service examination; (3) developing a "best practices" manual for preventive medicine residency directors; (4) evaluating preventive medicine residency programs; (5) creating Internet-based CME modules; (6) developing joint sponsorship activities; (7) and conducting the Board Review Course, featuring improvements in evaluation tools and methods. Current activities and upcoming plans in these areas are outlined below.

ACPM staff have redesigned the existing Education website and hope to launch a revised Education site later this fall. The revised site will contain links to the Careers in Preventive Medicine 2001 slide show, the On-line CME center, the upcoming Annual Meeting, past annual meeting sessions (via Digiscript), and a new Preventive Medicine Residency Training Resource Center. The Residency Training Resource Center will contain separate sections for program directors, current residents, and medical students/prospective residents.

The ACPM-sponsored Preventive Medicine In-Service Examination for preventive medicine residents attracted its largest turnout ever in August, with almost 300 residents from 40 programs across the U.S. and Canada participating in the exam. The In-Service Exam consists of 110 questions on epidemiology, biostatistics, infectious disease, chronic disease, occupational medicine, and health services administration. Preventive medicine residency programs use the exam to assess incoming residents, help residents prepare for the Board examination, and benchmark residents against those from other programs. The next In-Service Exam will be offered in December 2001.

ACPM staff have continued work on the draft "best practices" manual that was reviewed at the 8^th Annual Preventive Medicine Residency Program Directors Workshop, held in conjunction with Preventive Medicine 2001. Work on the manual has been delayed due to competing priorities and the departure of Linda Hill, former GME Chair who led development of the manual. The manual now is expected to be distributed at the 9^th Annual Preventive Medicine Residency Program Directors Workshop, as well as posted on ACPM’s website.

The manual contains sections on affiliation agreements; administrative requirements and policies; RAC and GMEC; rotations; formal skill testing and board performance; and evaluations. The manual also incorporates the new Program Information Form (PIF) for preventive medicine, which was released by the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for preventive medicine in April, 2001.

ACPM has created a draft survey to enable us to better describe preventive medicine residency programs. The survey is designed to obtain information on the structure, faculty, residents, and finances of individual programs.

ACPM held a conference call in June 2001 with eight residency training experts to discuss the draft instrument. ACPM since has incorporated suggestions generated during the call. The revised draft of the survey will be shared with the GME Subcommittee later this fall. The survey is expected to be completed in the early winter and the results are expected to be shared with residency directors in February 2001.

Three of four On-line CME Center modules are now available for CME credit through ACPM.org. These programs include "Safe Drinking Water: What Every Health Care Provider Should Know", "Indoor Air Quality: Detecting Illness, Educating Patients", and the on-line adaptation of ACPM’s 2001 Annual Meeting. ACPM continues to work with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to develop an educational module on the role of the physician in injury control, using automobile crashes as an example.

The College worked closely with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) to provide CME credit for its annual meeting, "Infrastructure: Building Public Health Capacity," in Orlando, FL, September 18–21. Unfortunately, the meeting has now been canceled. In addition, two educational sessions, "Determinants of High Performance Public Health Systems: Focus on the Public Health Work Force" and "Exploring Three Crossroads where Mental Health and Public Health Meet," will take place on October 21 in Atlanta, GA. The events will coincide with the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and will be jointly sponsored by ACPM and the American Association of Public Health Physicians (AAPHP). ACPM also is jointly sponsoring "Medical Management of Endurance Events," a program by the American Medical Athletic Association (AMAA) that will coincide with the Marine Corps Marathon on October 26-28.

The 14^th Annual Preventive Medicine Review Course took place August 25–29 in Denver, CO. There were approximately 175 people in attendance. Attendance was down slightly from previous years, presumably because of the Denver location. Nevertheless, according to the meeting evaluations, the course was well-received by participants. This year’s course marked the College’s first use of scannable forms for evaluation purposes. Survey Solutions, Inc. was employed to graphically design the survey instrument and compile the results, saving the College time and money, generating more meaningful reports, and improving upon the appearance of the hand-tallied surveys used in the past. ACPM will consider using similar services for future programs, most immediately, Preventive Medicine 2002. Thank you to the Review Course Co-chairs, Gershon Bergeisen, MD, MPH, FACPM, and Col. Eric Evenson, MD, MPH, FACPM, for their guidance.