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INTERNAL MEDICINE CMES
The number one reason why we offer
this course to Internal Medicine physicians is to provide a
resource which is always up to date: live
physician/subspecialist taught lectures on high yield areas of
medicine which are constantly changing/improving/developing.
Who is this best suited for? This CME
event is best suited for internal medicine physicians who have been
out of residency for at least 3 to 5 years. Internal Medicine is an
all encompassing specialty. Yet it is considered its own
sub-specialty. Because of this we as internal medicine physicians
are required to stay current on an extremely large amount of ever
growing knowledge. When we see and evaluate a patient with a cough
we are held to the same standard of care as a fellow pulmonologist.
Our friend the pulmonologist has a great deal of information to keep
current on but his area is far more focused than ours. We must also
keep up to date with our studies of cardiology, dermatology,
orthopedics, infectious disease, to name a few. In order to stay
current over such a vast number of specialties this would require
countless hours of study. When in medical school and faced with the
never-ending stream of examinations we spent most of our waking
hours studying and learning. To appropriately keep current in all
of the clinical areas that we as internal medicine physicians need
to stay on top of we would also have to spent ‘countless hours of
study’. Upon completion of medical school and residency, most of us
discover that although we have the intellectual ability to have
endured this long and arduous road, we are human just like our
neighbor. Some of us enjoy reading books that have nothing to do
with medicine. Some of us enjoy keeping current on world news and
events. And still others enjoy a good sporting event (baseball,
football, basketball, tennis, etc.) Many of us have also allowed
ourselves the pleasure of love and marriage and now have children to
care for. Each of these joys of life takes our precious time.
After having given so much of ourselves to medicine during medical
school and residency we now want to be able to enjoy the benefits of
being a physician as well as the benefits of being human. The
PearlsMED conference series has been developed for you. We bring
the specialists to you for a few days so that they can share the
pearls that they have gathered from their experience, research and
evidence based knowledge. Over the course of a PearlsMED event you
will be exposed to many sub-specialists who will provide you with
high yield clinical information that you need to know in order to
maintain your clinical practice. After a lecture that
speaker/subspecialist will be available to you for one on one
questions that you may not want to present in the general assembly.
An event of this quality and content is rare.
The biggest mistakes made my internal
medicine physicians.
1.
Prescribing errors.
Because of the vast wealth of knowledge that we internal medicine
physicians are required to know and the difficulties with trying to
stay current in all of the clinical areas needed, it is very common
for us to make a prescribing error. The primary problem with these
prescribing errors is not that the wrong medicine is prescribed for
the patient, but that the medicine prescribed for said patient
interacts negatively with other medications that she is also
taking. In 2009 it is very common for a patient to see a
cardiologist for her cardiac health. A gynecologist for her women’s
health issues and an internist for general internal medicine. In
addition, this same patient will also see an emergency room
physician or urgent care physician when she develops what she feels
is an emergency medical condition. This can be as simple as a fever
with a sore throat or as serious as numbness and paralysis over the
right side of the face. With this assortment of physicians that our
patient sees, it is common for her to receive multiple
prescriptions. Then when she comes to see us in our clinic for a
specific complaint, we then prescribe what we feel is the most
appropriate medication for her clinical scenario, THIS is where
problems can arise….the medication we have prescribed may most
probably interact with one or more of the other medications she has
been prescribed from one of the other clinicians she has seen. When
this patient develops a drug-drug interaction, the finger is pointed
at us as internal medicine physicians. Because in the eyes of the
public…which are the same as the eyes of the jury, we are seen as
the primary doctor for our patient. For this reason litigation is
directed first at us. In order to avoid this we must stay current
and demonstrate that we are acting/practicing with due diligence to
our specialty. We must stay up to date.
2.
Another big problem that
we internal medicine physicians make is also a problem faced by all
physicians. We don’t spend enough time with our patients—this leads
to lawsuits. Few of us may have the luxury of being able to do so,
but the majority of us cannot spend the time we need with each
patient. Over the next 15-20 years the baby boom generation which
makes up almost a third of the population of USA will retire. This
includes the physicians who make up this cohort. American medical
schools currently graduate approximately 25,000 physicians each
year. According to statistics we will see more than 25,000
physicians retire each year for the next 15-20 years. This
physician deficit creates is an even greater difficulty for us to
spend adequate time with each patient. There will be fewer
physicians and with the constant growth of the population this means
more patients. Our legal advisor will provide us with tried and
tested recommendations that when initiated will help us to increase
the perceived quality of time spent with each patient. This will
lead to happier and more satisfied patients. Which then leads to
fewer lawsuits.
100%
Money-Back &
No-Penalty with Early Cancellation!
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