Lifelong Learning

Google Hangouts: they're not just for video chats. It turns out that they are also quite useful for focused learning platforms positioned for targeted learners. How are these hangouts being leveraged for innovative medical educational offerings? Host Alicia Sutton welcomes Derek Warnick and Scott Kober to discuss this emerging platform in the healthcare sector.

"Patient engagement" is a broadly encompassing term that takes on various forms depending on the point of view, from the physician's drive toward better treatment compliance and health literacy to the patient's stance on being heard and understood through the care continuum. How can the medical profession assess, measure, and improve patient engagement indexes from both points of view? Host Alicia Sutton welcomes Pete Sheldon, president of Opus Science, LLC based in Annapolis, MD, to describe strategies employed locally and nationwide to enhance patient engagement.

Visual representations of data come in many shapes and forms in medical education, but their clarity, meaningfulness, and utility are always intended to be top-notch. Unfortunately, this is sometimes not the case, with visual depictions of important information that may appear confusing or, even worse for the educator, uninteresting. What is the rhyme and reason to generating effective designs for medical data? Host Alicia Sutton welcomes Andy Kirk, data visualization expert and founder of Visualizing Data Ltd, to address this subject in depth. Mr. Kirk is author of Data Visualization: a successful design process, a practical guide for creating data visualisation solutions in the most effective and efficient way.

There is a national public health crisis concerning the misuse and overuse of opioid medications, and despite multiple large scale efforts to stem the tide, negative trends persist. In order to address risk and safety concerns, reduce serious adverse outcomes, and simultaneously ensure that pain patients maintain necessary access to opioids, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has developed a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) that applies to all long-acting and extended-release opioid medications. Joining Alicia Sutton to discuss how REMS programs are being used to help inform and educate the medical community are Cynthia Kear and Tom McKeithen. Ms. Kear is Senior Vice President of the California Academy of Family Physicians, while Mr. McKeithen is Senior Consultant at Healthcare Performance Consulting

The meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (ACEHP) witnessed a broad spectrum of presentations and dialogues focused on medical education, from big data to quality improvement to social media to patient safety. Recapping highlights from this meeting is Dr. Destry J. Sulkes, President of the Board of Directors for ACEHP and co-founder of Medivo Inc.

Past success is not always a predictor of future success, and nowhere is this clearer than in the medical field. But what can medicine draw from the unprecedented successes and colossal failures of the corporate world? Joining host Alicia Sutton to discuss the gravity of success, and ways to avoid failure in the wake of that success, is Bill Levisay, Chief Customer Officer at Bolthouse Farms in Atlanta, GA.

Are you using social media in your practice setting? If not, you may be missing important new peer-to-peer educational opportunities and innovative means of connecting with your patients for better care provision. Joining Alicia Sutton to discuss the emerging roles of social media in medicine are Brian McGowan, Chief Learning Officer for ArcheMedx, and Dr. Alexander Djuricich, Associate Dean for CME at Indiana University School of Medicine.

How will new computational techniques leveraging "big data" analytics impact healthcare systems and medical practices, and where should this data come from? Alicia Sutton welcomes Jennifer Golbeck, director of the Human Computer Interaction Lab and associate professor at the College of Information Studies of the University of Maryland, to discuss present and future directions in big data usage for medicine and society.

How divergent are cultural perspectives in the healthcare system, and how does this affect both the delivery of medical care by clinicians and the paths toward health and wellbeing for patients? Dr. Simon Kitto, Medical Sociologist, Director of Research in Continuing Professional Development and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Wilson Centre for the University of Toronto, joins host Alicia Sutton to explore workplace culture from several vantage points, such as professional-to-patient value systems and group behavior dynamics, toward better understanding health outcomes.

The American Academy of Family Physicians estimates that approximately 52,000 more primary care physicians will be needed in the workforce by 2025 in order to maintain basic standards of care for the American population. But in a climate where medical professionals are increasingly turning away from general medicine to pursue higher paying niche specialties, the challenge to counter a looming shortage of primary care physicians rises exponentially. What actions, incentives, and culture changes will be needed to bring primary care back into prominence? Joining host Alicia Sutton to examine this issue is Ray Saputelli, Executive Vice President of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians.