CORE Heart Failure Education launches in Europe

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The summer is over in Europe, at least according to the calendar, and so it is time to launch the CORE programme on the continent. CORE – Hand in Hand in Heart Failure is a global, freely available, CME-accredited educational programme, focused on bringing the multidisciplinary team together to learn about best practice in heart failure. The content –created by an international steering committee of experts and localised for each country – brings the latest guidelines and evidence-based education to small groups of healthcare professionals.

The CORE programme in Europe kicked off in Spain with a meeting in Barcelona, with an enthusiastic group of 20 nationally recognised health care professionals dedicated to the treatment of patients with heart failure.  These CORE “Country Facilitators” included cardiologists, general practitioners and cardiac nurses and they are now responsible for disseminating CORE’s tailored education to small, multidisciplinary groups in highly interactive roundtable meetings.  With a large appetite for continuing education in Spain, CORE expects over 60 meetings to occur in Spain over the next 4 months.

CORE is supported by funding from Novartis Pharma AG. All educational content and materials are created by the CORE Steering Committee in collaboration with PCM Scientific, the medical education company acting as secretariat. The financial supporter has had no involvement in the creation or development of the educational content.

For more information about CORE, click here.

Transcending the template at EASD

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While international guidelines call for individualisation of diabetes treatment plans, there is little guidance on how to accomplish this, particularly in complex circumstances such as multimorbidity. A new educational initiative, led by Professor Silvio Inzucchi and Professor David Matthews – two authors of the 2016 ADA/EASD guidelines – aims to address this global practice gap. This began with an interactive, CME-accredited symposium on this important topic at this year’s annual EASD conference, which prompted over 70% of the audience to make measurable changes in their clinical practice.

Joint ADA/EASD guidelines have recently been published that recommend the individualisation of patient management, such as setting glycaemic targets adapted to patient circumstances, and escalating treatments strategically. However, there is a small mountain of available antidiabetic therapies, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, and little guidance on how to manage a non-standard patient. How does the practicing clinician set about addressing common, complex patient scenarios, in which diabetes presents alongside significant systemic comorbidities?

To address this is a new, CME-accredited educational programme: ‘Transcending the template: strategies for optimising complex patient management’. Bringing together a faculty of internationally renowned diabetes experts, TTT provides healthcare professionals with cutting-edge clinical guidance on the management of patients with important comorbidities, such as heart failure, obesity and chronic kidney disease.

TTT launched last week at the 52nd annual EASD meeting with an interactive symposium, accredited by three CME bodies: ACCME, EACCME and the local German accreditors, Bayerische Landesärztekammer. Feedback among participants was hugely positive, with 87.75% of the audience are better able to optimise treatment for complex patients, as assessed by a number of learning objectives.

The programme will continue over the coming months with a series of accredited online educational pieces, beginning with a live case study clinic on 29 November.

Transcending the template: strategies for optimising complex patient management is supported by funding from Novartis Pharma AG. All educational content and materials are created by the faculty in collaboration with PCM Scientific, the medical education company acting as scientific secretariat. The financial supporter has had no involvement in the creation or development of the educational content.

For more information about transcending the template, click here.

Why does CME matter?

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Continuing Medical Education (CME) is of consequence for all healthcare professionals but is especially important for physicians, many of whom are required to accumulate a set number of credits each year. In some countries, this is even a legal requirement – but it’s not just the formalities that make CME so important: professional development is more often fuelled by a personal desire amongst physicians.

But even if the desire to learn is palpable, finding the time to fit in extra learning is a significant barrier to participation.(1) Therefore, method of delivery and an engaging format is as important as the education itself. At PCM Scientific (PCMS), we pride ourselves in combining scientific rigour with creative educational design to develop innovative and ground-breaking programmes in European and global CME.

But what’s in it for Pharma? Today, more than ever, CME stakeholders are growing increasingly interested in (and demanding) measurable outcomes – not only does this add credibility to a given intervention but this is one of the unique aspects of CME. At PCMS, we believe we are at the forefront of achieving measurable change in Europe and beyond.

Indeed, as a founding member of the Good CME Practice Group, we not only believe that raising standards in the provision of CME is the right thing to do, but we can boast proven measurable practice change amongst physicians who have undertaken our programmes. (2)

Running a number of successful events and workshops, outreach-style roundtable meetings and online programmes over the years has resulted in some notable practice-change successes. For example, 87% of delegates attending our flagship IOTOD event in opioid dependence committed to making a change in their clinical practice; one year on, at least 70% had made those changes.

Similarly, 100% of respondents attending roundtable meetings in a global addictions programme reported changing their practice, noting positive changes in their patient-physician relationship, and their patients’ compliance and quality of life.

And it’s not just live events that have the potential to change practice: in 2013, a major online EU initiative was cited as helping to drive major national policy changes to broaden access to treatment in Poland and Portugal.

For more information about PCMS and the importance of CME, take a look at our website here.

References

  1. Stewart GD. Aust Health Rev. 2009; 33:47–56.
  2. Moore DE, et al. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2009; 29(1):1–15.