National Jewish Health Recognized With a Pair of Continuing Medical Education Awards

The Office of Professional Education at National Jewish Health received two awards at the annual meeting of the Colorado Alliance for Continuing Medical Education (CACME). National Jewish Health won the “Best Practice in Collaboration Award” for a partnership with the North American Quitline Consortium on the Beyond the 5 A’s: Improving Cessation Interventions through Strengthened Training. Additionally, the institution received the “Best Practice in Research Award” for the research conducted in year one of The Wellbeing Campaign. 

“This recognition is a great honor, and exemplifies our hard work and dedication,” said Meg B. Dingae, MHSA, CCMEP, Manager, Educational Grants and Collaborations.

The Best Practice in Collaboration Award

The Office of Professional Education at National Jewish Health collaborated with the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) on an educational program to improve the frequency and effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions delivered by healthcare professionals. First, National Jewish Health and NAQC organized Beyond the 5 A’s: Improving Cessation Interventions Through Strengthened Training Conference, a three-day meeting bringing together professionals who design and deliver smoking cessation education programs for providers, public health tobacco cessation experts, systems decision-makers, healthcare providers and researchers. 

National Jewish Health and NAQC also developed a website to promote continued collaboration and conversation among conference attendees, and to offer resources to others who did not attend the conference. The website provides an online forum called Community of Practice “Matters,” which allows attendees to network with each other about smoking cessation issues. The website also gives participants and others access to downloadable slides and presentations from the conference, speaker bios, a virtual poster session, videos of keynote presentations, three post-conference newsletters, and a CME/CE activity that highlights the conference materials. 

The program was funded by an educational grant from Pfizer.

The Best Practice in Research Award

The Wellbeing Campaign is a three-year initiative to build sustainable weight management programs in two primary care clinic networks with a goal of replicating them nationwide. Pre-assessment data were collected from providers and patients to establish a platform on which all initiative interventions and practice re-design will be based. 

Pre-assessment included interviews, focus groups, and surveys involving 209 healthcare professionals and 400 overweight/obese patients. Providers were questioned on awareness of health risks associated with obesity, whether they felt patients wanted to discuss weight management with them, and confidence in prompting discussion. Patient questions focused on awareness of BMI, interest in losing weight, resources needed for healthier behaviors, and emotional well-being.

The pre-assessment indicated that a majority of patients are comfortable talking with their provider about weight management. This suggests there is an opportunity many providers were not aware of for addressing the second-leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. The pre-assessment also made it possible to segment patients into four categories, which helped guide providers as they engage patients in weight management education and intervention. 

The project was funded by a grant from the Colorado Health Foundation.