Imagine having developed a continuing medical education (CME) initiative to educate physicians on updated guidelines regarding high cholesterol in adults. This initiative consisted of didactic presentations and case-based discussions offered in 5 major US cities, followed by a Web-based enduring component to distill key points of the live…

Moving knowledge into practice and the implementation of innovations in health care remain significant challenges. Few researchers adequately address the influence of organizations on the implementation of innovations in health care. The aims of this article are to (1) present 2 conceptual frameworks for understanding the organizational factors…

Research findings will not change health outcomes unless health care organizations, systems, and professionals adopt them in practice. Knowledge translation research is the scientific study of the methods to promote the uptake of research findings by patients, health care providers, managers, and policy makers. Many forms of enquiry addressing…

Continuing professional development (CPD) is an important vehicle for knowledge translation (KT); however, selecting CPD strategies that will impact health professionals' behavior and improve patient outcomes is complex. In response, we, KT researchers and CPD knowledge users, have recently formed a partnership known as the National Network for…

Transfer of patients from rural emergency departments to tertiary centers can improve outcomes. The transfer process is complex and often ad hoc, inefficient, duplicative, and frustrating to both patients and providers. Suboptimal transfer undermines quality of care, raises costs, and delays services. Unfortunately, the same barriers that make…

Continuing education (CE) that strives to improve patient care in a complex health care system requires a different paradigm than CE that seeks to improve clinician knowledge and competence in an educational setting. A new paradigm for CE is necessary in order to change clinician behavior and to improve patient outcomes in an increasingly…

Research into networking and interactivity among practitioners is providing new information that has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of practice improvement initiatives. This commentary reviews the evidence that practitioner interactivity can facilitate emergent learning and behavior change that lead to practice improvements. Insights…

Improving Performance in Practice (IPIP) is a large system intervention designed to align efforts and motivate the creation of a tiered system of improvement at the national, state, practice, and patient levels, assisting primary-care physicians and their practice teams to assess and measurably improve the quality of care for chronic illness and…

Since the early 1960s, most discussions about the improvement of continuing medical education (CME) have begun by seeking a better understanding of how physicians learn. The goal of this movement has been to put physician learners and their learning needs, not new research findings, at the center of the educational process. This has led CME away…

Continuing medical education (CME) is plagued by outdated ideas about how physicians should use information in treating their patients. To maintain relevance, CME programs must develop a new approach to teaching that acknowledges the realities of twenty-first century health care and offers physicians a better way to learn.

A core skill for all physicians to master is that of information manager. Despite a rapidly expanding set of electronic and print-based information resources, clinicians continue to answer their clinical queries predominantly through informal or formal consultation. Even as new tools are brought to market, the majority of them present information…

Systematically enhancing learning from experience (practice-based learning) dominates the teachings of Sir Willian Osler and adult learning theorists such as Eduard Lindeman, Malcolm Knowles, and Cyril Houle. Because of time constraints, most physicians have not implemented methods that systematically facilitate learning from day-to-day work, but…

The Informed Shared Decision-Making project focused on overcoming physician resistance to continuing education and developing allies for change among stakeholders and opinion leaders. Strategies included substantive incorporation of continuing medical education into the medical education continuum and involvement of patients in planning and…

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) initiated programs to enhance quality for 54, 000 doctors of osteopathic medicine (DOs) practicing in the United States. Seven core competencies are required in undergraduate and graduate medical education standards. They include osteopathic philosophy and osteopathic manipulative medicine, medical…

The Colorado Personalized Education for Physicians program focuses on assessing interpersonal communication skills through such techniques as video- and chart-stimulated recall, Myers Briggs Type Inventory, and Learning Style Inventory. Participants improve their patient communication skills through preceptorships or miniresidencies. (SK)