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Author: Joel Selzer

ArcheMedX and the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians Announce the Launch of the First Accredited Virtual Course

Selected family physicians and patient-centered medical home teams can now participate in an eight-week virtual course, with some activities accredited for AAFP Prescribed credit, on the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.

Charlottesville, VA (PRWEB) February 20, 2014

ArcheMedX and the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) launched the first ever virtual course, with educational elements accredited with AAFP Prescribed credit, for family physicians this week in collaboration with seven state chapters of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The eight-week course offers members of each participating state chapter an entirely new way of connecting learning to practice as they dive deeper into the “Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder” through a curriculum of self-directed lessons and collaborative learning activities that recreate the critical elements of small, problem-based workshops in a secure, online setting.

As Ray Saputelli, EVP/CEO at NJAFP explains, “We are thrilled to announce the launch of the MDD Virtual Course and believe it signifies a turning point in the way continuing education can and should be delivered to clinicians, especially family physicians who are constantly challenged to balance their limited time with providing the highest quality care and staying up to date on the latest best practices. By partnering with ArcheMedX to design and deliver this virtual course, we have created a far simpler and more engaging way for primary care teams to acquire new knowledge and apply critical lessons to practice.”

The MDD Virtual Course powered by the ArcheCourse enables faculty to deliver a flexible curriculum of weekly video-, slide-, discussion-, self-assessment-, and case-based lessons; collaborative exercises; and self-directed learning activities to small, trusted cohorts of learners. The ArcheCourse also makes it simple for faculty to communicate with and engage cohorts and individual learners, and the administrative dashboard provides access to learning data in real-time so faculty can immediately assess course effectiveness and utilize lesson tools to direct individual learners to engage more actively or to focus on areas where they need more support.

Learners participating in an ArcheCourse can track their progress as they engage in accredited CME activities and collaborative learning exercises, communicate with faculty, and learn from each other within a safe, secure, and private virtual classroom. As they participate in accredited lessons and learning activities each participant can access learning tools to:

  • take, sync, share, and archive their own notes;
  • set personal reminders that will be delivered via a spaced-based reminder system to maximize recall and action;
  • discuss planned content and learning activities with faculty and classmates;
  • and quickly search through relevant resources (i.e., journal articles, clinical studies, patient education tools, etc.) that have been carefully selected by faculty.

Recent data suggest that the majority of clinicians are using new social technologies for the express purpose of lifelong learning and professional development. These findings along with a growing body of literature evaluating the impact of new learning technologies in medical education provided a robust body of evidence that was leveraged to develop the educational design for the Major Depressive Disorder Virtual Course, the first in a series of accredited, collaborative learning initiatives delivered by NJAFP and ArcheMedX.

According to Brian S. McGowan, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at ArcheMedX, “The launch of our first virtual course with NJAFP is the first step in the transformation of team-based and inter-professional learning, which is essential as greater coordination of care is required across the healthcare system.” Dr. McGowan adds, “The ArcheCourse provides the best of ‘small, group based learning formats’ in a secure and trusted online model and by working with NJAFP we are bringing together primary care physicians and primary care teams to learn collaboratively in a simpler and more efficient manner.”

Each participating state chapter will activate their own classroom within the virtual course following a one-hour live faculty led session held at participating state chapter meetings. To learn more about the virtual course and how your state chapter and members can participate, please contact Ray Saputelli, Executive Vice President of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians. For more information about ArcheCourse and the connected learning solutions provided by ArcheMedX, please contact Joel Selzer, CEO of ArcheMedX, or visit https://archemedxinc.wpengine.com.

About ArcheMedX
ArcheMedX is a healthcare informatics and e‐learning technology company with the singular mission to build the structure required to transform medical education through new connected learning and assessment models. By engineering an informatics‐powered architecture that organizes and connects the natural learning actions of clinicians in one system, ArcheMedX simplifies lifelong learning and streamlines the process of educational planning, assessment and support. Visit https://archemedxinc.wpengine.com for more information.

About New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP)
The NJAFP has been advancing the cause of family physicians and their patients for over 50 years. With over 2000 members, including active practicing family physicians, residents in family medicine, and medical students interested in the specialty, the NJAFP is the largest primary care medical society in the state and a chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Our mission is to promote excellence in the standards and practice of Family Medicine to benefit the citizens of the state of New Jersey. Membership in the NJAFP guarantees career-long resources and support that will keep Family Physicians on the cutting edge of patient care. Visit http://www.njafp.org for more information.

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New Data Shows ArcheMedX-Powered Education Achieves Significantly Better Learning Outcomes Than Traditional e-Learning

ArcheMedX-powered education has demonstrated consistent and repeatable improvements in learning, knowledge change, competency, and performance among learners.

Charlottesville, VA (PRWEB) February 12, 2014

ArcheMedX released data today that demonstrates meaningful and significant improvement in learning among clinicians who participated in education powered by ArcheMedX and the company’s flagship self-directed e-learning solution, the ArcheViewer. Paired analysis of pre- and post-lesson assessment data (view full report) shows that learners participating in ArcheMedX-powered education consistently and repeatedly improved learning, competency, and performance.

Joel Selzer, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ArcheMedX added further evidence, “Since launching the first ArcheMedX-powered education in September of last year, learner completion rates have persisted at a staggering clip, upwards of 80% in multiple lessons, which is three times the industry average across both video- and case-based activities. This represents a remarkable achievement in a short period of time for the ArcheMedX team and our Educational Partners, but what really matters most is how ArcheMedX is improving learning, competency, and performance among clinicians today.”

The high completion rates are directly attributed to the ArcheMedX Learning Actions Model and the manner in which ArcheMedX-powered education engages and supports the clinician’s natural learning actions. New types of learning actions data captured through the ArcheViewer allow Educational Partners to explore deeper layers of learner participation and levels 1-5 of Moore’s expanded framework as measured by assessment data and the notes taken, reminders set, questions asked, and resources viewed, downloaded, or shared. Since planners and faculty can quickly assess the effectiveness of their planned content as learning actions data and lesson progress is presented back in real-time, they have been able to optimize lessons and consistently increase completion rates month over month over month.

Data collected from recent ArcheMedX-powered education revealed the following:

    • Within 6 weeks of launching a recent initiative, learners had taken and set hundreds of notes and reminders and reviewed and downloaded nearly 500 key resources (i.e., journal articles, clinical studies, patient education tools) that Faculty and Planners had collated and connected to the primary learning experience.
    • After participating in a series of ArcheMedX-powered CE activities nearly 50% of learners reported that they were now more comfortable applying the content matter in practice or were expressly ready to make a change in practice.
    • When compared to a control group of demographically matched learners, participants of ArcheMedX-powered education answered a range of assessment questions across a variety of key learning objectives with 3-fold, 4-fold and even 7-fold greater accuracy.
    • In another initiative designed to better assess learning change over time, learning was meaningful and significant (p = 0.00000000000539) in paired analysis inclusive of both declarative and procedural domains.
    • Nearly 100% of participants believed that ArcheMedX-powered education would be a more efficient way for their colleagues to learn.
    • And, within 30 days of participating in a series of ArcheMedX-powered CE activities, learners were nearly twice as likely to report having applied changes in practice.

Brian S. McGowan, Co-Founder & Chief Learning Officer of ArcheMedX explained, “From increased participation and learning to improving competency and performance, the data overwhelmingly shows that ArcheMedX provides significantly better learning outcomes than traditional e-learning offerings. By adding structure to the learning experience, ArcheMedX-powered education is simplifying the way clinicians learn.”

These results are just the beginning. ArcheMedX is now working with education providers across the United States to leverage the ArcheMedX Learning Actions Model and e-learning solutions to drive AND measure changes in patient and population health outcomes.

As Dr. McGowan explains, “Over the coming months we will be exploring the impact of ArcheMedX-powered education on a variety of chronic disease conditions that are largely under-managed and overlooked in the primary care setting – and therefore lead to significant and unnecessary burden on our nation’s emergency room system.” These studies are intended to fundamentally transform how the industry describes and explores the value of CE and the CE profession in healthcare improvement.


About ArcheMedX
ArcheMedX is a healthcare informatics and e‐learning technology company with the singular mission to build the structure required to transform medical education through new connected learning and assessment models. By engineering an informatics‐powered architecture that organizes and connects the natural learning actions of clinicians in one system, ArcheMedX simplifies lifelong learning and streamlines the process of educational planning, assessment and support. Visit https://archemedxinc.wpengine.com for more information.

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RESOURCE: Completion Rates Aren’t the Best Way to Judge MOOCs, Researchers Say

When it comes to measuring the success of an education program, the bottom line is often the completion rate. How many students are finishing their studies and walking away with a credential?

But that is not the right way to judge massive open online courses, according to researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Course certification rates are misleading and counterproductive indicators of the impact and potential of open online courses,” write the researchers in the first of a series of working papers on MOOCs offered by the two universities. (The Harvard papers can be found here, the MIT papers here.)

Released on Tuesday, the papers make good on a pledge by Harvard and MIT in 2012, when the universities teamed up to create edX, a nonprofit provider of massive open online courses. At the time, the presidents of the two universities said their foray into online instruction would include a major research project aimed at learning more about online courses, especially the kind that they and other exclusive universities had started making available free.

via Completion Rates Aren’t the Best Way to Judge MOOCs, Researchers Say

ArcheMedX and Imedex Announce Collaboration to Power the Imedex e-Learning Center

The ArcheMedX connected learning platform will simplify clinician learning across the more than 40,000 online educational experiences Imedex delivers each year.

Orlando, FL (January 16th, 2014) ‐ ArcheMedX and Imedex announced a partnership and agreement today to deliver innovative, continuing medical education (CME) programs powered by the ArcheMedX Learning Architecture, an informatics-driven, connected learning platform. By powering the Imedex e-Learning Center (elc.imedex.com), ArcheMedX will enable Imedex to simplify and improve clinician learning across the more than 40,000 online educational experiences Imedex supports annually.

imedex logo“The entire Imedex team is delighted to partner with ArcheMedX and believe that delivering our high quality education through the ArcheMedX platform will provide an even more engaging and impactful learning experience. By working together we will drive increased knowledge change among the thousands of clinicians who visit our e-Learning Center each month,” commented Ray Hall, VP, Marketing & Support Services at Imedex.

In an age when clinicians face a daily challenge to stay up to date with new and emerging best practices, the Imedex e-Learning Center will deliver educational content (audio/video, slides, cases, audio) within the ArcheViewer, an informatics powered e-learning architecture that provides a structured set of learning tools for each clinician. As Ray Hall explains, “The ArcheViewer will connect our high quality content and programs together in more innovative and structured ways and provide the Imedex team new and actionable insight into the effectiveness of our learning programs. “

The ArcheViewer will empower learners visiting the Imedex e-Learning Center to take their natural learning actions around content offered in the e-Learning Center by creating and archiving notes synchronized to the relevant moment in the lesson, setting enduring reminders in accordance with spaced-learning theory, and searching related resources and tools that have been indexed for rapid retrieval. In real-time, Imedex will be able to analyze how learners engage in various lessons powered by the ArcheViewer, enabling Imedex to utilize the lesson tools within the ArcheViewer to update content on the fly and nudge individual learners to engage more actively or to focus on their subject matter weaknesses.

Dr. Brian S. McGowan, Chief Learning Officer at ArcheMedX commented, “In partnering with the organization that pioneered the Educational Impact Score (EIS), we know that Imedex understands how critical it is to structure learning, both in terms of educational experience and learning analysis.” Dr. McGowan adds, “For nearly 30 years Imedex has been leading and innovating how medical education is delivered, now through this partnership they are empowering their community with a structured learning experience unlike anything that has been offered before.”

Access to the new ArcheViewer powered programs will begin in early 2014 for Imedex registered learners.  To learn more about the Imedex e-Learning Center and how the ArcheMedX platform and connected learning tools are being leveraged, please contact Christopher Bolwell, BSc, VP, Strategic Accreditation Services & Compliance Officer.

For additional information on ArcheMedX, please contact Joel Selzer, Co-Founder & CEO.

About ArcheMedX
ArcheMedX is a healthcare informatics and e‐learning technology company with the singular mission to build the structure required to transform medical education through new connected learning and assessment models. By engineering an informatics‐powered architecture that organizes and connects the natural learning actions of clinicians in one system, ArcheMedX simplifies lifelong learning and streamlines the process of educational planning, assessment and support. Visit www.archemedx.com for more information.

About Imedex
Imedex® is an industry leader in providing accredited, independent continuing medical education to health care professionals. We develop high quality, scientific programming that translates the latest research into clinically relevant information. The activities have exceptional organization and outstanding educational value, with a proven sustained impact on disease management.

Our established relationships with leading investigators and researchers in medicine, and some of the world’s most prestigious societies, make our educational offerings among the most effective in the industry. These specialists are widely recognized international authorities who provide fair and balanced presentations of the most clinically‐significant and relevant information.  Our comprehensive programs are designed utilizing advanced adult educational principles in order to ensure that key learning objectives are identified, measured, and achieved.

Imedex programs focus on improving patient care around the world. With over 40,000 e‐learning experiences annually and more than 125,000 live meeting attendees over that past decade, Imedex truly educates the global healthcare community. At Imedex, we believe that education is the best medicine®.

Visit www.imedex.com for more information.


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Education and Healthcare Embrace a Digital and Interconnected World

Fact or Fiction: Educational technology or “EdTech” is now essential.

According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive it sure looks like a fact when 90% of surveyed educators state it’s “important” or “absolutely essential” to use products (such as apps, computer games, websites, digital planning tools, or digitally deliEdTech is essentialvered curricula) designed to help students or teachers.  And with Stanford, Harvard, and MIT leading the “virtual classroom” charge, its hard to ignore the digital wave sweeping across education.

The same holds true in healthcare. When every other news headline this week is focused on whether the “best and brightest” in Silicon Valley can fix Healthcare.gov’s glitches, we know healthcare has gone digital. But I’d rather showcase the 59% of adults who looked online for health information in the past year or the 86% of physicians currently using mobile devices and apps in clinical practice, to make the point hit home.

Speaking of a digital wave, did anyone notice that more than 200 million users downloaded Apple’s iOS7 operating system the first week it was released. That’s right, 200 million people around the world downloaded new software to their iPhones and iPads last month, making this the most successful product launch in the history of the world.  While this is great news for Apple shareholders (including me), this milestone has huge implications for the future of education and healthcare.

It means that we truly live in an interconnected world (see the first slides from my talk at SOCRA for additional data). When a single company can reach out and touch 200 million people across the globe and prompt them to take immediate action with the click of a button, then we are poised to shatter any preconceptions we once held about the way education and healthcare will be delivered and consumed. As connection speeds continue to increase and mobile devices become pervasive (i.e, billions of connected devices, not millions), we will soar past today’s “flipped classrooms” to create highly personalized, immersive, and real-time learning experiences that can be delivered and consumed anywhere, any time.

In this new interconnected world, where EdTech and Healthcare intersect, clinician learners can participate in rich digital learning experiences – moving well beyond video lectures and real-time discussions to discovering insights that can be captured, recalled instantly, and applied directly to improve the healthcare provided to all of us and our loved ones.

This vision of the future is shared by entrepreneurs and innovators across the world, including right here in Charlottesville with the ArcheMedX team and our partners. And since we can now live and work from anywhere in an interconnected world, Steve Case (AOL, Revolution) is spot on when he says, “Not all great companies are in Silicon Valley”. Innovation can happen anywhere, and I hope the news shared through our site and resource center provides a quick glimpse into how our team and others are putting the pieces in place to change the very fabric of education and healthcare.

Best,

Joel Selzer

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Survey Reveals Significant Clinician Demand For Online CME And Virtual Courses

Recent data collected by Elsevier, AcademicCME, and ArcheMedX shows nearly all clinicians will either increase or maintain participation in online CE programs in the next year

Philadelphia, PA, September 12, 2013 (PRWeb) ‐ Clinicians continue to embrace new forms of online learning according to a survey of 801 clinicians conducted by Elsevier’s Office of Continuing Medical Education (EOCME), AcademicCME and ArcheMedX in the first half of 2013.

Survey data shared this week at CBI’s 11th Annual Independent Medical Education and Grants Conference demonstrates increased demand for traditional forms of online CME (webcasts, video and cases) and virtual courses (prolonged cohort-based learning) as clinicians reduce their dependence on traditional live medical meetings.

The 2013 Joint Survey of Healthcare Professionals Continuing Education Preferences revealed that 97 percent of surveyed clinicians will increase or maintain their use of traditional online CME, this coincides with a significant overall trend to reduce participation in live meetings. Another key finding was that nearly 4 in 10 of surveyed clinicians plan to increase their participation in Virtual Courses in the coming year.

“Clinician confidence in the effectiveness of online education is now almost identical to that of live meetings,” said Dr. Brian S. McGowan, Co-Founder & Chief Learning Officer of ArcheMedX. “Our data clearly shows that healthcare professionals recognize the benefits of participating in online educational activities and as a result up to 40 percent of respondents expect a significant decrease in their live meeting attendance in the coming year.”

The ease of access to and convenience of online education are not the only reasons physicians want digital learning tools and online programs, the survey also revealed that physicians see online CME activities to be more effective than broad guideline dissemination efforts, patient education tools, and existing practice support tools.

As demand for online CME and new digital learning tools continues to grow, EOCME and AcademicCME will launch a series of innovative online education programs powered by the ArcheMedX Connected Learning Platform.

“The future of lifelong learning is at our doorstep,” said Dr. Timothy Hayes, President of AcademicCME. “With the pending launch of our first ArcheMedX-powered program, ‘Improving Patient Outcomes in Multiple Sclerosis: Clinical Trial Data and Management Strategies,’ we have begun to make learning far simpler for clinicians by seamlessly connecting practical educational content with the broad library of resources published and owned by Elsevier.”

When the program launches, learners will experience an enhanced form of online learning as they take notes, search related resources and synchronize their learning actions to the most relevant moments within the educational content, making it easier to apply critical lessons to clinical practice. Access to the new programs will be made available to registered learners through the AcademicCME and EOCME websites.

“Physicians are clamoring for better models of online learning, and thanks to widespread commercial support additional innovative programs in Oncology and Urology will subsequently launch later in the fall,” said Sandy Breslow, Director of the EOCME.

To learn more about the new CME programs and how the ArcheMedX platform and connected learning tools are being leveraged, please contact Sandy Breslow or Dr. Timothy Hayes. For additional information on ArcheMedX, please contact Joel Selzer, Co-Founder & CEO.

Survey Methodology – The EOCME conducted a mixed-methods survey deployed in July 2013 to over 10,000 physicians where 801 responded during a period of two months.

# # #

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby’s Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, helping research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

About AcademicCME

AcademicCME is a physician-run, healthcare solutions medical education company designed to impact practice behavior and thus patient outcomes. AcademicCME leadership draws on the more than 45 years of clinical experience of its staff physicians in clinical practice and education, which provides a unique understanding of the dynamics between physician behavior, patient care and practice based educational needs. Visit www.academiccme.com for more information.

About ArcheMedX

ArcheMedX is a healthcare informatics and e‐learning technology company with the singular mission to build the structure required to transform medical education through new connected learning and assessment models. By engineering an informatics‐powered architecture that organizes and connects the natural learning actions of clinicians in one system, ArcheMedX simplifies lifelong learning and streamlines the process of educational planning, assessment and support. Visit www.archemedx.com for more information.

 

 

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2013 Healthcare Professional Continuing Education Preference Survey

Survey Reveals Significant Clinician Demand For Online CME And Virtual Courses (View Press Release)

Data collected by Elsevier’s Office of Continuing Medical Education (EOCME), AcademicCME and ArcheMedX in the summer of 2013 demonstrates that 97% of clinicians (N=801) are planning to either increase or maintain their participation in online continuing education programs during the next year, while there appears to be a significant pull back in the participation in live meetings and conferences.

Survey Methodology – The EOCME conducted a mixed-methods survey deployed in July 2013 to over 10,000 physicians where 801 responded during a period of two months. A summary of the initial results can be found below:

There is a significant shift from learning in live meetings to learning online through traditional online CME (cases, videos, and slides) and novel, online Virtual Courses.

Survey data  - forecasting topline data

 

This shift in preferred formats for continuing education was seen across a wide variety of physician specialties and a number of allied healthcare professions (nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants).

Survey data  - forecasting specialty data

 

Likewise, the shift in preferred formats for continuing education was evident regardless of whether clinicians practice in urban, suburban, or rural settings.

Figure 3 survey data

 

And while much of this shift is thought to be due to access and convenience, it appears that learner confidence in online CME is quickly approaching their confidence in live CME meetings.

Survey data  - forecasting effectiveness data

 

For additional information regarding the survey results, please contact Joel Selzer or Brian S. McGowan.

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RESOURCE: A Review of Flipped Learning

As technologies and broadband become more widely available and as the focus on integrating technology into learning increases, interest in Flipped Learning will likely continue to grow. In recognition of this interest,  the Flipped Learning Network, with the support of Pearson Education and researchers at George Mason University, undertook a comprehensive review of relevant research. In this review, we define and describe the Flipped Learning model, briefly note its historical foundations and address common misconceptions. We discuss learning theories that underlie the model and describe current, although limited empirical research findings. We also describe concerns that have been raised.

via A Review of Flipped Learning

Featured Article: New CME Architecture Aims to Enable Better Learning

By Sue Pelletier | MeetingsNet

“There’s an assumption that CME providers tend to make—we have all made it—that learners know what to do with the information they gather during continuing medical education activities, that learners know how to learn efficiently,” says Medical Meetings columnist, research scientist, and educational technologist Brian S. McGowan, PhD. “While medical education providers offer increasingly well-designed content, and we are becoming increasingly adept at using adult-learning theory, the classic CME model depends on the idea that, when you hand ideas over to a learner whether through a lecture, or a webinar, or a journal—the learner knows what to do with that material. We started to challenge that premise last year, and what we found through extensive research is a need to structure the learning experience to make it simpler, more effective, and easier to retain knowledge that’s been transmitted during education.”

Enter ArcheMedX, a learning architecture McGowan and co-founder Joel Selzer created to both strengthen and simplify the learning process by helping learners take better notes, build in reminders so they can reflect on what they learn over time, search for further information to help them integrate learning into practice, and collaborate with faculty and other learners to validate their perspectives on the information.

“If learners do not effectively leverage these four learning actions, learning is hit or miss at best,” McGowan believes. “We are proposing that education needs to be delivered within a learning architecture that’s not only designed to support note-taking, reminders, searches, and social learning endeavors, but should also help the learner leverage these learning actions more efficiently.”

Evolving a New Learning Structure

McGowan first contacted Selzer as he was gathering examples of collaborative communication models for his book, #SocialQI: Simple Solutions for Improving Your Healthcare. Selzer, with Jason Bhan, MD, had launched an online learning community for U.S. physicians in 2008. Called Ozmosis, the community enabled thousands of licensed and verified physicians to tap into the collective knowledge of their peers. Over time, the software platform behind the Ozmosis.org community evolved into OzmosisESP, an informatics-powered collaboration solution that hospital systems and healthcare organizations such as DaVita use today to improve the flow of information around clinical content and workflows.

“By using OzmosisESP, if someone on the morning shift on 9 West started a new workflow process (such as updating a care plan), evening-shift nurses on 4 East would be able to track it as it evolved,” says McGowan. “The more Joel explained what the software could do, the more ideas I had about how we could transform medical education.” Early last fall, the two decided to spin out ArcheMedX as an entirely new venture. The Ozmosis enterprise software platform, which has been used by tens of thousands of clinicians over the past several years, provided the initial informatics engine and collaborative tools used within the ArcheMedX software. Selzer is now ArcheMedX’s CEO and McGowan is the chief learning officer of the company they co-founded.

To date, McGowan and Selzer have interviewed more than 150 clinicians, educators, residents, and residency directors to explore what can be done to improve a clinician’s lifelong learning experience. What they found is that learners don’t typically have training in note-taking, or setting reminders, or effective searching, much less social validation. “If we asked clinicians if they had ever taken a note-taking class or thought about how to improve their note-taking, 99 percent said no,” says McGowan.

And while most have some way to remind themselves of information they want to retain—by dog-earing a page, highlighting a piece of text, or sending themselves an e-mail—the reminders either take the learner away from what they’re learning, or end up being ignored when, despite good intentions, learners don’t revisit their notes. A few more clinicians copped to trying to learn how to search more effectively, but even those who are more comfortable at searching aren’t always great at finding what they need. “Their ability to find the right answer and use it effectively is numbingly bad,” says McGowan.

ArcheMedX Four Natural Learning Actions_Small

And yet these four “natural” learning actions—note-taking, reminders, search, and collaboration—have to take place before learning can happen. “Time after time the clinicians we interviewed told us that their learning begins with note-taking, but they need to take more effective notes,” says McGowan. “Then learners need to build a set of reminders around those notes that enable them to reflect efficiently over time and apply their learning insights to practice. They also need to have access to and be able to efficiently search related pieces of information so they can understand how what they learn relates to the context of their practice or prior body of knowledge. And they need to be able to compare perspectives on the learning with others, which helps to reaffirm and cement the learning into place.”

Built-in Cues

Because the entirety of this CME model is based on what learners have to do before they can actually learn, the system provides gentle nudges at points where the instructor thinks a note would be a good idea, McGowan says. “We’re not being invasive or obtrusive with it, but we integrate note-taking into the planned activity, and provide visual cues—‘Here are three important things that you ought to remember.’ The more that we nudge the learners to use the architecture, and the more the content that our partners are creating is married to the architecture, the more effectively those four actions are being taken.” The architecture also enables educators to introduce new content once the program is live (think of a clinical study that is released three months later) and then nudge the learners to interact with the new content.

Following a commitment-to-change model, users set the reminders, which are e-mailed to them based on a pre-set delivery schedule. “It automatically archives the notes that you thought were important, and sends them out to you at set intervals,” says McGowan. Learners don’t necessarily even have to open the e-mail—the subject line alone will serve as a reminder about the note they took, though they can link back to the referenced part of the presentation if they want to. “That reminder of just looking at the subject line, just awareness about the note, will begin the retrieval process we know drives long-term learning,” says McGowan.

Educational planners also can overlay the content with a message, perhaps pointing out the three most important things to remember, or offering related content and programs on the topic, or launching a quiz. “Using the informatics’ engine within the learning architecture, we can connect disparate pieces of content so learners don’t have to struggle to make those connections themselves,” says McGowan.

Three Building Blocks

ArcheMedX actually offers three separate learning architectures: one for self-directed learning, one for learning in groups, and a massive online learning model. The self-directed learning architecture connects the first three learning actions to the content so clinicians can create their own “learning stream” by taking, synching, and archiving notes alongside the lesson; searching resources provided by the educational planner (such as journal articles, clinical studies, etc.); and creating e-mail and text message-based reminders in their own words.

The cohort-based model also brings in the fourth learning action (social), so learners can engage in activities with small, trusted groups of clinicians. Using this model, ArcheMedX has begun to flip the traditional learning experience at conferences and live meetings by engaging cohorts of learners online in pre-conference learning activities, and then re-engaging them after the conference has ended.

ArcheMedX_2

Key to the cohort-based or virtual classroom model is that learners are participating (and collaborating) in a structured curriculum. As McGowan explains, “This approach empowers clinicians to absorb new information over a series of collaborative exercises, building a virtual community of practice that extends well beyond the walls of a small medical meeting, a regional conference, or a residency program. And, for the educator, it provides flexibility to create broad lesson plans and communicate with and engage learners in collaborative and self-directed learning exercises.

The massive online learning architecture is similar to the cohort-based model, except that it doesn’t wall off individual activities or classrooms of learners within an activity, but instead allows hundreds or thousands of learners to interact with the content and share the reactions and responses to build a collective knowledge base.

Using Learning Action Data to Build Better Education

Educational planners and faculty also can use the unstructured data to enhance what they’re offering. One user might set a reminder at seven minutes into an activity, while another might take a note at four minutes in. These data enable providers to see exactly what learners are engaging with, and how. This “fundamentally changes how we assess learning,” McGowan says. “At the individual activity level we’re using qualitative analyses to assess learning based on the natural language processes. Once we’ve done this across dozens of activities, we’ve just created the world’s largest learning registry of tens of thousands of notes and reminders and searches, all archived and connected back to the pieces of content that were driving those actions in the first place,” says McGowan. “We’ll be able to answer hundreds of correlative or associative research questions, which is where the field needs to go. Instead of asking ‘Does CME work?’ we can ask ‘Why does medical education work?’”

Adds Selzer, “Since the architecture provides a way for educators to assess the learning that’s taking place and update content dynamically based on real-time analysis, our educational partners can now create a continual state of improvement in programs powered by ArcheMedX. Together, we can ensure it doesn’t take 17 years for the next great advancement to become standard practice. “

There are currently more than two-dozen partners (including national medical societies, leading content providers, and academic medical centers) who are beginning to leverage the ArcheMedX learning architecture. To learn more about the system, visit archemedx.com.


New ArcheMedx Collaborative Learning Model to Simplify Lifelong Learning in Primary Care

In partnership with the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) and American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP), ArcheMedX will power a new collaborative education model for primary care physicians and primary care teams.

Charlottesville, VA (May 1, 2013) / PRWeb / ArcheMedX announced today a collaboration with the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP) and American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) to deliver innovative, comprehensive continuing medical education (CME) programs and virtual courses for allopathic and osteopathic primary care physicians and primary care teams, powered by the ArcheMedX Collaborative Learning Platform, an informatics-driven, connected learning solution.

As Ray Saputelli, EVP/CEO at NJAFP explains, “At the front lines of the healthcare system, primary care physicians are constantly challenged to stay up to date with new best practices and to increase productivity so that they may provide care of the highest quality. We know that continuing education is a critical element of these professional obligations and by delivering virtual courses and collaborative education programs in partnership with ArcheMedX, we can create a far more efficient and more effective learning model in primary care.“

The new “Virtual Courses” powered by the ArcheMedX Collaborative Learning Platform will provide NJAFP and ACOFP nearly limitless flexibility to create broad lesson plans, communicate with and engage learners in collaborative and self-directed learning exercises, and provide advanced reporting that can be used to evaluate and assess learning and engagement in real-time.

“Primary care is bearing the greatest weight in the ongoing transformation of the US healthcare system,” says Ken Korber, Director, Education & Development at ACOFP, “and we must look for evidence-based approaches to transforming how primary care physicians maintain their competency.” Recent data suggest that the majority of clinicians are using new social technologies for the express purpose of lifelong learning and professional development. These findings along with a growing body of literature evaluating the impact of new learning technologies in medical education provide a robust body of evidence to guide a novel approach.

According to Brian S. McGowan, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at ArcheMedX, “New models of team-based learning are essential as greater coordination of care is required across the healthcare system.” Dr. McGowan adds, “Cohort-based learning that enables primary care physicians and primary care teams to learn together in a simpler and more efficient manner will not only accelerate learning but also encourage the collaboration that is critical to effective team-based care.”

In the coming months, these new learning models will be rolled out to primary care physicians and care teams throughout the country with an initial focus on primary care practices in the Mid-Atlantic region. To learn more about the changing landscape of lifelong learning in primary care please contact Ray Saputelli or Ken Korber, for more information about ArcheMedX and its connected learning platform, please contact Joel Selzer or visit www.archemedx.com

About New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP)

The NJAFP has been advancing the cause of family physicians and their patients for over 50 years. With nearly 2000 members, including active practicing family physicians, residents in family medicine, and medical students interested in the specialty, the NJAFP is the largest primary care medical society in the state and a chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Our mission is to promote excellence in the standards and practice of Family Medicine to benefit the citizens of the state of New Jersey. Membership in the NJAFP guarantees career-long resources and support that will keep Family Physicians on the cutting edge of patient care. Visit www.njafp.org for more information.

About American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP)

The ACOFP is a professional medical association that represents more than 20,000 practicing osteopathic family physicians, residents and students throughout the United States, since 1950. The ACOFP works to promote excellence in osteopathic family medicine through quality education, visionary leadership and responsible advocacy. Our related mission includes the goal: 1) To encourage understanding of the principles and practices of osteopathic family medicine, and to improve public health by increasing the general knowledge relating to the prevention, cause, and treatment of disease. 2) To promote research and to publish the findings of research in osteopathic principles and practices related to the prevention, cause and treatment of diseases. Visit www.acofp.org for more information.

About ArcheMedX

ArcheMedX is a healthcare informatics and e‐learning technology company with the singular mission to build the structure required to transform medical education through new connected learning and assessment models. By engineering an informatics‐powered architecture that organizes and connects the natural learning actions of clinicians in one system, ArcheMedX simplifies lifelong learning and streamlines the process of educational planning, assessment and support. Visit https://archemedxinc.wpengine.com for more information.

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