draft application for continuing medical education credit for 6IMCA

Gevorg Yaghjyan MD
Hambardzum Simonyan MD

background (mission statement): Armenian medical congresses held periodically with the goals of fostering communication among healthcare practitioners concerned with Armenian health, upgrading the overall state of Armenian health and updating physician knowledge in competence with ultimate hopes of improving performance and patient outcomes.

General  concerns (practice gap):  Armenian health faces many challenges including underfunding, training of physicians, and systemic problems in society such as health habits. These have been aggravated by the Covid 19 pandemic and attacks by Azerbaijan. Several areas of focus have been identified for the upcoming Congress to be held July 6-7-8, 2023.

• Cancer
• Non-communicable Diseases
• Military and emergency medicine
• Innovation
• Vaccination

Cancer: Armenia experiences high incidence and death rates from certain cancers including breast and lung. While the reasons for breast cancer incidence are not fully known, the high death rate is in part related to low screening rates leading to discovery of disease at an advanced state. Lung cancer is likely related to high smoking rates and the high smoking rates among the young population are particularly concerning. Air quality is also poor in urban areas.

educational needs underlying the practice gap will be handled on a topic-by-topic level, but examples of these include:

• What are the breast cancer incidence and death rates, and how do they compare to western countries
• What is the state of breast screening and where do we need to improve
• What strategies can we develop to improve screening (advertisements on TV, training nurses, better government funding)
• and you can think of others.

for lung cancer:

• What are the incidence and death rates, how much of it is in nonsmokers, how does it compare to the west?
• How well are anti smoking campaigns working?
• How will low dose CT screening work in a country like Armenia?
• What are smoking patterns in Armenian diasporan communities?
• What does the average Armenian know about COPD or lung cancer?

noncommunicable diseases including hypertension and diabetes are aggravated by a number of factors including obesity rates, lack of primary care access, expense of medical follow-up, inconsistent access to medications, smoking, lack of training among primary care providers, and other factors.  Pollution related to mining and other industries has the potential  to increase NCDs.

NCDs of concern include

• cancer
• hypertension
• diabetes
• cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease
• COPD

War  with Azerbaijan has led to many health issues including significant loss of life among a generation of our young, disability and rehabilitation from war injuries, stress disorders among our soldiers and displaced populations.  

Emergency preparedness for disasters such as war are imminently needed, as well as emergency preparedness for other events such as earthquakes and wildfires.

Innovation

Vaccination

 learning objectives vary by topic. Examples (for breast and lung cancer) include

• discuss the cancer rates and their comparison with Western and other populations
• develop strategies for improved screening & prevention
• review treatment options

target audience for the Congress is physicians, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, physical & occupational therapists, students of health sciences and others concerned with healthcare in Armenian populations.

Congress format:  plenary sessions will be used for communication to our registrants as a whole. Breakout sessions will offer more focused discussions among specialists. Satellite sessions will provide access to physicians located in surrounding regions and Artsakh.  depending on the geopolitical situation at the time of the Congress, we may offer Satellite sessions in Artsakh.

the official languages for plenary lectures are Armenian, English and Russian.  simultaneous translation is available in the plenary sessions.

(dear Gevorg and Hambardzum, because there will be a number of attendees from non-English-speaking countries, I have proposed an adaption of Google translate which simultaneously translated into multiple languages, called polyglot. )

Additionally, roundtable and other open discussions are needed to help shape vision and policy. Academic and political leaders are invited to the Congress for this purpose.

poster sessions will enhance discussion among interested parties. the Congress committee will accept abstracts submitted in advance and compile these for distribution among attendees.

 Desirable Physician Attributes

ABMS:

• Patient Care
• Medical Knowledge
• Professionalism
• Systems-Based Practice

IOM:

• Provide Patient-Centered Care
• Work in Interdisciplinary Teams
• Employ Evidence-Based Practice

 Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education

 we have a checklist for making sure there is no commercial bias during the Congress. This includes:

• obtaining financial relationship information for everyone in control of course content. This includes the 6 IMCA planning committee and all faculty. This should be done early.  we want to know about all financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months.
• Ineligible companies, previously known as commercial interests, includes manufacturers, distributors, sellers, resellers of product used in or on patients.
• The disclosure information must include the name of the ineligible company, the nature of financial relationships (employee, research grant, consultant, speaker, ownership, stocks).  
• ACCME has a webpage with this information
• we have to mitigate relevant financial relationships (make sure they do not cause bias in the Congress) and disclose these relationships to the learners prior to the presentations..

• we also need to follow rules for commercial support for the Congress in the form of unrestricted educational grants.
• This does not apply to exhibit fees.  however we must ensure that participants can enter the Congress without being forced to walk by exhibit tables.

 Analyzing change

changes in competence will be measured using an online survey for attendees of plenary sessions and certain breakout or Satellite sessions.

As a goal of the Congress is to facilitate policy change and healthcare modernization, follow-up with the Ministry of health and academic institutions will include ________________________.

 Commendation Criteria:

promotes team-based education:

• members of interprofessional teams engaged in planning and delivery of interprofessional continuing medical education
• engaging patient and public representatives including ministry of health in the planning and delivery of CME
• students of health professions engaged in planning and delivery of CME

Addresses public health priorities

• advancing the use of health and practice data for healthcare improvement
• addressing factors beyond clinical care that affect the health of populations
• collaborating with other organizations to more effectively address population health issues