Hopkins CME Blog

Roy Ziegelstein, M.D., acclaimed cardiologist and award-winning teacher, was named the new new vice dean for education at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Ziegelstein succeeds David Nichols, M.D., M.B.A., who was named the inaugural vice dean for education in 2000 and left Johns Hopkins in September 2012 to become president and CEO of the American Board of Pediatrics.

Ziegelstein is ideally qualified to serve as vice dean for education, a position in which he will oversee undergraduate, graduate, residency, postdoctoral and continuing medical education programs, as well as the Welch Medical Library. An internationally recognized expert on the relationship between depression and cardiovascular disease, and a superb physician renowned for his sensitivity and skill at doctor-patient communication, he is devoted to educating the next generation of physicians.

The Sarah Miller Coulson and Frank L. Coulson, Jr. Professor of Medicine, Ziegelstein has spent his entire professional career at Johns Hopkins. Among many other roles, he served as director of the internal medicine residency program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for nearly a decade. He developed an innovative course, “Transition to Residency and Internship and Preparation for Life” (TRIPLE), which teaches Johns Hopkins students the attitudes and skills necessary to provide compassionate, patient-centered medical care and prepares them for residency and professional life.

Co-director of the Aliki Initiative at Johns Hopkins Bayview, Ziegelstein helped create and works with residents and students in this novel program that teaches the importance of knowing patients as individuals in order to provide optimal patient care. He has served as senior associate dean for faculty development in the medical school, as well as executive vice chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical campus, where he also has been deputy director for education.

Dr. Ziegelstein has been involved with continuing medical education as both an activity director and speaker. Most recently, he has presented lectures at The Edmund G. Beacham 40th Annual Current Topics in Geriatrics and The Nicholas Fortuin Cardiovascular Topics at Johns Hopkins. He also serves as activity director for the JHBMC Medical Grand Rounds.

In 2004, Ziegelstein was recognized for his work on doctor-patient communication by being named the inaugural Miller Family Scholar. In addition, from 2004 through 2010, he served as director of the cardiovascular disease group in the NIH-funded Johns Hopkins Center for Mind-Body Research.

Congratulations to Dr. Jeremy Nathans and Dr. Peter Pronovost on their appointments as JHU’s newest Gilman Scholars, a distinction recognizing the very best of the best at The Johns Hopkins University.

The designation of Gilman Scholar honors colleagues who exemplify the highest ideals of The Johns Hopkins University, as demonstrated through distinguished research and scholarship, artistic and creative activity, teaching, mentoring, and/or service. The title is open to faculty members in the academic divisions and to professional staff at the Applied Physics Laboratory.

Among JHU’s Gilman Scholars are Nobel laureates, award-winning teachers, and world-renowned researchers and scholars.

More details on this honor and brief summaries of the new scholars’ accomplishments are available today at http://hub.jhu.edu/2013/03/28/gilman-scholars-nathans-pronovost

Recently CMS published the final version of what has been called the Sunshine Act. The regulation is not actually called the Sunshine Act, but the National Physician Payment Transparency Program, although I suspect that it may frequently still be referred to as the Sunshine Act. The new regulations apply to a vast array of circumstances including research. In this blog I will only address the issues relevant to CME and I will only touch on the high points.

It has commonly been stated that the final version provided a waiver for CME. This is not really true. However, before I review that aspect it should be clear to the reader that the reporting requirements embedded in this regulation apply to industry and not to the CME provider. It is true that industry may require, as a component of a grant that certain aspects of required material be provided to them so that they may accurately report to CMS. Once industry reports to CMS the physician will need to review that draft report. If they disagree with it they must contact industry to negotiate a change if desired. If the two parties agree to a change then industry must update that information by no later than 60 days after the report was due. If the two parties continue to disagree then the industry information will stand and it will be duly noted that the physician disagrees with the data.

So now let’s get back to the important issue of whether or not CME has a waiver in this process and thus is free and clear from the regulation. The regulation does offer a “safe harbor”, meaning that a report is not required, for accredited CME if three conditions are met, and yes all three must be met. The first is that the activity for which payment was received, either directly or indirectly, must be an accredited/certified activity. The second requirement is that industry must have no say in the content development and especially in choosing the speakers/facilitators/writers of the material/activity. This should not be a hard requirement to fill as it is already a component of the standards of commercial support (SCS 1.1) originally set forth by the ACCME and now adopted by most accrediting bodies and thus for the activity to be accredited this criteria must be met. The final requirement is that no direct payment can be made to the physician. This also will not be too hard to meet as providers typically already have this as an established practice in order to meet the standards for commercial support (SCS 3.8/3.9). If all three conditions are met then funding for accredited CME indeed will not be reported.

If an accredited provider also provides educational activities that are not accredited and those activities receive funding then again, industry will be required to report and the provider will likely be required to provide a dataset to industry. In such a circumstance there are at least twelve components requested in the report. These include but are not limited to name, address, NPI (National Provider Identifier), date, nature of payment, and related covered product if applicable.
Reporting will start this fall and the first cycle will contain less than a years worth of data. Subsequent cycles will encompass entire years.

If you would like to review the full set of standards of commercial support click here: http://accme.org/requirements/accreditation-requirements-cme-providers/standards-for-commercial-support

We’ve made some changes that will make our system more secure, and also enables single-sign on for the Hopkins community.

For most users, logging in will look a little different after the change, but you will use the same login id and password that you had before. When you click login, you will get a page to select how you would like to login — with hopkins credentials or CME login and password. Select CME login and a login box will appear. Enter your same CME email and password that you used before.

For Hopkins faculty, staff and students, you will be able to use your Hopkins JHED ID and password to login to our site, by selecting the Hopkins login option. If, for some reason your credentials do not work, please email cmetechsupport@jhmi.edu and let us know your JHED ID, name and email address. We’ll update your login information in our records.

If you run into any issues with logging in, please contact cmetechsupport@jhmi.edu.

Thanks!!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

2012 was a wonderful and exciting year here at Hopkins CME. Exciting new activities married with office changes. After more than a decade of service Dr Victor Marrow retired and we hired our first Assistant Dean, Dr. Annette Donawa.

We just finished a retreat held with all of our staff as well as a retreat for our senior staff. We even start a Yoga class after the first of year to add to all of the other wellness activities our office participates in.

We have had our trials and tribulations as well. Our hearts go out to our staff that lost family this year and those who have struggled against illness.

We are saddened by some of the tragic events of this past year, but are certain that 2013 will bring new challenges and new opportunities.

We hope that you have a wonderful and safe new year.

David Feller-Kopman, M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of Interventional Pulmonology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, has been chosen as this year’s recipient of the Geoffrey McLennan Memorial Award for Advances in Interventional Pulmonology.

The award, given annually by the American Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology, recognizes physicians who have made significant contributions to the field with great potential for future success. Feller-Kopman received the award on October 20 at the organization’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia and delivered the McLennan Memorial Lecture.

Dr. Feller-Kopman is leading Third Annual Diagnosis and Management of Pleural Disease, an upcoming CME activity, to be held December 10-11, 2012 at the Chevy Chase Bank Auditorium at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD.