The mission of UF CME is to provide physicians with lifelong learning opportunities that support their commitment to enhancing their skills in areas such as patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice.
The audience for these initiatives includes physicians and other clinicians practicing in Florida, across the United States, and worldwide.
This mission is accomplished by providing high-quality, accessible educational activities focused on these competencies. UF CME-supported activities are designed to promote positive changes in clinical practice by enhancing learners’ competence and performance, with the key goal of improving patient outcomes through evidence-based medicine.
We collaborate with activity directors to develop programs addressing identified gaps in physicians’ knowledge of common and emerging health conditions. We evaluate the impact of these activities by analyzing attendee survey responses and utilize that information to improve future programs. Additionally, we design quality improvement activities that include CME components and rely on data from our UF Health electronic records systems to assess baseline performance and the changes in performance resulting from these projects. Our programs aim to positively influence patient outcomes by enhancing system-level processes of care, which should ultimately lead to more consistent, evidence-based medical care for patients. While these outcomes are difficult to correlate directly with educational initiatives, they are evaluated alongside the quality improvement projects we have implemented, focusing on areas such as cardiovascular disease, cancer treatment, and the assessment of cognitive impairment.