NCME CME Mission Statement

Purpose
The purpose of the Network for Continuing Medical Education (NCME) is to provide highly professional, focused and relevant educational activities for physicians at a time, pace, and place convenient to their practice. NCME contributes to the commitment of physicians to enhance their lifelong professional development and to provide quality healthcare to their patients.

Values

• NCME is committed to provide service to hospitals and their participating physicians, as well as to community-based physicians
  
  
• NCME believes strongly in trying to provide education as close to the point of care as possible in order to more efficiently affect clinical practice
  
  
• NCME believes in developing comprehensive education initiatives which it trademarks under the leadership of scientific councils
  

Content Areas
Content areas of the CME program include that body of knowledge, skills, and attitudes generally recognized and accepted by the medical profession to be current and within the discipline of clinical medicine and the provision of healthcare to the public. Educational content includes, but is not limited to, information about primary care elements of family practice, internal medicine, cardiology, infectious diseases, psychiatry and surgery, as well as issues of professional ethics, quality improvement, and practice management.

Target Audience
The prospective participants for NCME educational activities include a wide range of physicians in the United States, as well as anywhere in the world where such activities would be appropriate. NCME activities are designed for practicing primary care physicians and specialists in other fields.

Types of Activities
Activities and services are made available through a network of hospitals and medical centers that reach a significant number of physicians who provide patient care, as well as through direct distribution. The variety of media and formats includes:

• Live symposia, hospital lectures, Internet webcasts, webconferences, teleconferences, and hands-on "critical pathways" and best practices workshops to help hospital teams implement evidence-based medicine in clinical practice based on existing treatment guidelines
  
  
• Enduring materials such as DVD, CD-ROM, audio CD, on-demand Internet webcasts, podcasts, PDA programs, printed monographs, supplements, and newsletters, and other innovative media as they become available
  
  
• Leading academicians, clinicians, biomedical scientists and other healthcare delivery experts participate in developing CME activities which are responsive to the identified needs of practicing physicians
  
  Expected Results
  NCME activities are designed to help practicing physicians:
  

• Provide quality healthcare services that are consistent with prevailing professional standards of care
• Utilize and keep abreast of new and changing medical knowledge, skills, and attitudes
• Correct outdated practice patterns, and
• Comply with established requirements for licensure, board certification, and/or professional society membership.

NCME is committed to assuring that its CME Program is effective in changing physician behavior. Post-activity evaluations are used to provide feedback to faculty and planners. In addition, NCME sends follow-up outcomes evaluations to learners three to six months after the completion of the activity to determine the degree to which the learners were actually implementing information acquired in the activity.

Based on the successful outcomes from the STRIVE initiative, NCME has established a minimum goal for outcomes that are quantifiable as follows:

• 50% increase in awareness of new guidelines (where applicable)
• Greater than 30% of learners enter into a learning contract in the post-activity evaluation
• 20% of participants use the information in their practice to improve patient care