Across the United States, a number of
organizations, such as the American Medical Association, American Academy of
Pediatrics, and Federation of State Medical Boards, are working together to
facilitate continuing education opportunities for physicians. Regionally, the
Drexel Medicine Physician Refresher/Re-Entry Program of Drexel University
College of Medicine (DUCOM) has served the physician community in this way
since the program was developed in 1968.
The Drexel Medicine Physician
Refresher/Re-Entry Program is a regional resource for physicians to enhance,
refresh, or update a particular clinical skill. In addition, there are many
retired physicians looking to return to medicine and physicians from overseas
who want to acculturate to the American medical system. Though most physicians
who participate in the program are from our region, others have come from all
over the United States and the world.
Recently enhanced program
In 2006 the refresher/re-entry program
was enhanced by combining DUCOM?s experience, instructional technology
resources, and the school?s excellence in medical education. The result was
innovative, exportable curricula for physicians to access anywhere on their own
time. The Drexel Refresher/Re-Entry Program has several courses that physicians
may take independently or sequentially to refresh or enhance their skills or
remediate a subject.
The Drexel Refresher/Re-Entry Program
currently offers several educational opportunities online as well as on site.
The goal of the online program is to allow physicians anywhere to access the
courses at their convenience in order to update their medical knowledge and
improve clinical reasoning or communication skills. Enhancing one?s
communication skills is particularly useful when interacting with specific
patient populations or situations, such as changing habits, substance abuse,
intimate partner violence, and adolescent care.
The on-site courses are given in
Philadelphia at DUCOM?s university hospitals, Hahnemann and St. Christopher?s,
and are offered in internal medicine, obstetrics-gynecology, surgery,
pediatrics, and subspecialties. Furthermore, focused training is available on
specific topics such as medical documentation or chronic disease management.
Learning opportunities are also
available using the Independence Blue Cross Medical Simulation Center, a
state-of-the-art facility that features life-like robots, simulation programs,
and newly designed rooms where health professionals can interact with actors
portraying sick patients.
Innovations with WebOSCE
WebOSCE, another novel online
technology, allows live ?WebEncounters? between physician learners and selected
standardized patients (actor-patients). This new learning format features
online practice, assessment, mentoring, and assignment of learning tasks.
For detailed information about WebOSCE,
go to http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/webosce
.
Experienced faculty and staff
DUCOM?s faculty and staff serve as an
additional resource and offer help in becoming up-to-date in various ?newer?
skills pertinent to a practicing physician, such as electronic medical records,
medical documentation changes, computer or research skills, medical errors, and
health policy changes. Equally important, the DUCOM staff guides physicians in
the maze of career counseling and regulations to determine the best way of
achieving each physician?s goals, both before they take any of the courses and
long after they finish. Physicians who have completed the program have stayed
in touch, seeking guidance with letters and credentialing and reporting on
their progress.
For more information about the
opportunities offered by DUCOM, please visit http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/refresher or call
215-762-2580.