About Us

The Stanford University School of Medicine is a premier research-intensive institution improving health through collaborative discoveries and innovation in patient care, education and research. The school fosters two-way transfer of knowledge between research laboratories and patient-care settings. Faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, students, and physicians in the broader medical community engage in interdisciplinary efforts to translate this knowledge into clinical practice.

Purpose

The Stanford University School of Medicine continuing medical education (CME) program promotes continuous improvement in patient health care by providing physicians and other health care professionals with high quality, evidence-based educational activities focusing on advances in medicine, new medical technology, biomedical research, and changes in the health care environment. The overall goal of the program is to augment physician knowledge, enhance competence and performance in practice, and improve patient outcomes.

Content

Stanford's CME program includes a broad range of primary care, specialty and subspecialty topics chosen through a comprehensive needs assessment process. The needs assessment process identifies "gaps" in physician knowledge, competence and/or performance, defined as differences between current practice and best practice. Continuing medical education content is chosen for its relevance to the target audience's current or potential scope of professional activities. CME activities are planned in the context of desirable physician attributes and core competencies to promote dissemination of practice patterns of high quality and serve the best interests of the public.

Target Audience

• Stanford School of Medicine faculty.
• Local community physicians and physicians from the system's affiliated hospitals.
• Other physicians in Northern California.
• Physicians from the United States and other countries in the world.
• Health care professionals as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Activity Types

Learning methods are selected based on the setting, identified needs, desired results, and learning styles of the target audience.

Stanford offers a variety of CME activities, including the following:

• Regularly Scheduled Series
• Live Courses
• Skills Workshops and Simulations
• Enduring Materials

Expected Results

As a result of their participation in the Stanford CME program, learners will demonstrate changes in competence and/or improvement in performance-in-practice. Metrics for determination of success include the following:

For changes in competence, outcomes assessments will be utilized to determine if learners indicate they will apply new strategies in practice.

For improvements in performance-in-practice, outcomes assessments will show that physicians implemented new behaviors in their practice that were intended as results of the educational activity.

For improvements in patient outcomes, outcomes assessments will show physician self-reported improvements in patient outcomes and/or improvements in quality data over time.

The Stanford University School of Medicine has been surveyed by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and awarded Accreditation with Commendation for six years as a provider of continuing medical education for physicians.

ACCME accreditation seeks to assure the medical community and the public that Stanford University School of Medicine provides physicians with relevant, effective, practice-based continuing medical education that that supports US health care quality improvement.

The ACCME employs a rigorous, multilevel process for evaluating institutions' continuing medical education programs according to the high accreditation standards adopted by all seven ACCME member organizations. These organizations of medicine in the US are the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and the Federation of State Medical Boards of the US, Inc.