[April 17, 2012] Joslin Diabetes Center Joins Forces with Phytel on CME Research Project Tweet Apr 17, 2012 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Phytel, a company in physician-led population health improvement, and the Joslin Diabetes Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliate in the forefront of the fight against diabetes, announced their collaboration on a landmark research initiative to compare the accuracy and predictive value of current assessment methodologies for continuing medical education (CME) programs. According to a release on April 12, the results will be used to inform ongoing efforts to improve diabetes care. The study will compare four methods of evaluating educational outcomes in diabetes care: physician self-reports, competency assessments based on case studies, examination of a sample of patient charts, and data drawn from Phytel clients' electronic registries, which cover all of a practice's patients with diabetes. Joslin chose Phytel as its partner in this study because of Phytel's customer base and its ability to provide population-wide data. Hundreds of physician groups and healthcare systems that collectively care for over 20 million patients use Phytel's patient outreach, care management, patient engagement, transitions of care, and analytics solutions in population health management. Joslin and Phytel expect the study to commence in April or May and to be completed by the end of the year. "Joslin's grant requires our researchers to explore the most effective methods of verifying outcomes of educational interventions to further the adoption of best practices in diabetes care," noted Julie Brown, CCMEP, director of professional education, Joslin Diabetes Center. "Phytel's expertise in population health management and its comprehensive database will enable Joslin to make valid comparisons among different methods of assessing performance and patient level outcomes relative to educational and non-educational interventions." Steve Schelhammer, CEO of Phytel, commented, "We are honored to be part of this important study by the Joslin Diabetes Center. The research will help improve medical education and will supply a firmer basis for evaluating care team performance. Phytel customers that participate in this research will benefit in part through their front line involvement in an innovative effort for measuring improvement in diabetes care." "Today's CME is much more about quality and continuous quality improvement than it is about lectures and tests," continued Brown. "And Joslin's program is completely performance focused. We view CME as a tool for everyday practice, not just something you need to 'go get.' This innovative research in CME -- funded through independent medical education grants provided by GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Inc., and Lilly & Co. -- we hope will be groundbreaking relative to accurately assessing outcomes in a scalable, efficient manner that is beneficial to all stakeholders." Joslin Diabetes Center, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is a diabetes research and clinical care organization. More information: www.joslin.org ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]