CME Mission Statement

The mission of Inova Health System’s Office of Continuing Medical Education (Office of CME) is to improve patient care and outcomes by providing robust, objective, and evidence-based continuing education for the healthcare delivery team.

Purpose

The purpose of Inova Health System’s Office of CME is to support the Inova Health System’s commitment “to provide world-class healthcare – every time, every touch – to each person in every community we have the privilege to serve.” This is accomplished by creating and facilitating the highest quality and relevant educational opportunities to advance physician competence, enhance practice performance, improve patient safety, and cultivate lifelong learning.

Content Areas

The Office of CME provides educational activities based on competencies related to clinical medicine, medical research, and medical education. The content areas of primary importance are driven by systematic ongoing needs assessment that leads to higher standards of patient care consistent with the current health care environment. The scope of the activities provided includes but is not limited to clinical practice, education, research, teaching, and patient and population health care education.

Target Audience

Primary focus of the Office of CME is to offer continuing education to practicing physicians in Northern Virginia and adjoining regions. Participation of medical students, residents, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to foster multidisciplinary collaboration is welcomed and encouraged.

Types of Activities

The Office of CME programs provide both traditional and innovative continuing education activities. Methods of instruction are varied to offer learning experiences, appealing to diverse and individual learning styles and practice setting requirements. These activities may include didactic lectures, seminars, regularly scheduled series (RSS), symposia, enduring materials, and hands on workshops.

Expected Results of the Program

The Office of CME is committed to assessing the impact and effectiveness of its CME program on learners through qualitative and quantitative methods including: pre activity self-report, post activity self-report, assessment evaluation, and follow-up assessments and/or outcomes measurements. Following an educational intervention, learners are expected to report one or more of the following: 1) expanded or reinforced knowledge, 2) greater confidence in their approach to clinical problems, or 3) express their intent to change their behavior and apply newly acquired strategies in clinical practice.

Program Business and Management Procedures

The Office of CME adheres to the policies and procedures set by Inova in all areas of business, management, financial, and legal issues. In addition, the Office of CME is committed to comply with applicable rules and guidelines established by the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV), Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and American Medical Association (AMA).