Patient Partners in Continuing Professional Development

CE News (01/24) Mitton, Edeline

Healthcare providers are increasingly recognizing the value of patient engagement, especially in continuing education (CE), in efforts to boost the outcomes and the quality of care. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education convened in 2023 a working group to study how to engage patients in CE. The Engaging Patients in Continuing Education Working Group is using a peer-led approach to answer questions about how to approach a patient, how to build a case with stakeholders, patient caregiver orientation to CE, the responsibilities of CE staff and potential challenges and pitfalls. Through monthly meetings, the group reviews a number of scenarios and challenges that CE providers may face as they seek to increase involvement of patients with lived experience perspectives in CE. One project members are working on is a "Battle Scale," a flexible scaling framework that helps individuals or teams increase their patient partner involvement in CE from simple projects to more complex ones. The framework is named for Aaron Battle, the patient partner on the working group. The roadmap "is expected to provide valuable insights and resources for CE providers looking to integrate patients and caregivers with lived experience perspectives into their programs," writes Working Group member Edeline Mitton, MEd, MPH, of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education.

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