Improving Medical Training for the Care of Chronic Conditions

Overview

While medical training has increasingly included chronic care management, quality care necessitates education approaches that go farther. In April 2005, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) implemented a weekly Diabetes Shared Medical Appointment (SMA). SMAs offer an important opportunity to improve chronic care and a unique setting for training physicians. In order to equip physicians with needed resources to manage chronic care, the ways in which SMA experiences are processed and integrated into learning about interdisciplinary approaches and expanding trainees' understanding of chronic care issues need to be examined.

: Most physicians receive training in and about an acute care-oriented health care system that cannot adequately address the challenges of chronic care management. While medical training has increasingly included chronic care management, quality care necessitates education approaches that go farther. In April 2005, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC implemented a weekly Diabetes Shared Medical Appointment (SMA). Results indicate that SMAs are sustained and, as such, SMAs offer an important opportunity to improve chronic care and a unique setting for training physicians. SMAs offer the potential to provide training in crucial skills that have to date remained less amendable to traditional educational practices. In order to equip physicians with resources to effectively and efficiently manage chronic care, the ways in which SMA experiences are processed and integrated into learning about interdisciplinary approaches and expanding trainees' understanding of chronic care issues need to be examined. Without addressing this gap, it is not possible to develop a comprehensive care model that links education and patient outcomes for chronic conditions, such as diabetes. Building on previous pilot work, we continued to address evaluating and validating instruments. The proposed pilot project included using a think-aloud protocol to evaluate and validate new items and scales assessing interdisciplinary team and chronic care/diabetes beliefs, and evaluating and adjusting direct observation coding tools for chronic condition care.