Pharmafile Logo

Does your medical education drive change in clinical practice?

How to advance outcomes for patients using a medical education process, by Jan Steele PhD, operations director, Lucid

There is a growing body of evidence (eg Bauchner et al, 2001) that standard Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities, where healthcare professionals attend a one-day meeting or similar, do not result in a change in clinical behaviour. This is hardly surprising! Psychologists who study how people change their behaviour describe change as a journey. The change journey has three distinct phases:

  • Predisposing: this identifies people ready for change and begins to highlight the gap in their care that the training will address.
  • Enabling: this ensures that any intervention (eg lecture, workshop) addresses benefits and barriers to change, allowing peers to work together to understand how they can make the change. It also identifies tools that participants can use to help them make the change when they are back in their clinics.
  • Reinforcing: this is a planned intervention where participants are reminded of the need to make the change and are encouraged to share their experiences. It keeps the education front of mind (see figure 1).

Putting theory into practice

Imagine there is new evidence which suggests that accurately determining disease severity at diagnosis in patients with psoriasis improves patient outcomes, as the most effective therapies can be used from the outset. You might plan a meeting designed to support clinical leads in making this change in their department.

Predisposing delegates prior to education

Your aim here is to highlight to the participant the need for a change in clinical practice which will advance patient outcomes. There are several ways to identify a gap between what should be happening and what is actually happening. In the example above, we could ask participating clinicians to:

  • Audit newly diagnosed patients to see if disease severity was assessed at diagnosis 
  • Ask their team to review the charts of the last ten patients they diagnosed counting the number of patients who had their disease severity accurately measured 
  • Survey their team and ask them how often they think they measure disease severity accurately 
  • Work through case vignettes to measure how often they would measure disease severity or treat with a certain class of therapies
  • Survey patients attending their clinic asking how often they have their disease severity measured.

None of the above is perfect, and the list is not exhaustive, but raising a participant’s consciousness about the need to change before he comes to an educational event makes him more receptive to the education delivered.

Enabling delegates during the education

Plenary talks do not change behaviour, and so the first rule in changing participant behaviour is to make the education interactive. This can include:

  • Workshops
  • Live interviews
  • Case-based teaching and role play
  • Debates
  • Use of audio-visual aids eg holograms.

It is also critical that you enable your participants to discuss the benefits of making the change and the barriers they perceive (preferably with someone who has already changed their practice). Finally, think about tools and tips that participants can take away to help them change when they return to their clinic. 

Reinforcing the change in behaviour

This is regularly overlooked. The participant returns to his clinic and slips back into his old habits. There are various ways of reinforcing behaviour change such as:

  • Email messages to the participant from the faculty
  • Sharing new data demonstrating that changing practice will advance patient outcomes
  • Requesting feedback from the participant to understand how easy the change has been to implement
  • Sending case vignettes or self-assessment questions 
  • Conducting a follow-up audit or survey.

While there is a growing body of evidence that the way we educate needs to change, we still deliver one-day, plenary-heavy meetings. As an industry, if we want to support education that advances outcomes for patients we need to look at education more holistically, and support participants for the entire journey.
Advance Outcomes

This content was provided by Lucid Group Communications Limited

Company Details

 Latest Content from  Lucid Group Communications Limited 

My Journey Into MedComms #LucidLife

In NetworkPharma’s latest career guide for wannabe account managers, Tessa Rowland, Senior Account Executive, discusses her journey into the varied and fast-paced world of medical communications.

Lucid Group bolster its talent with a further twelve new starters for 2021

As if welcoming eight new graduates was not enough to bring some excitement to the start of the new year, Lucid Group has also welcomed a further twelve new employees...

The Lucid Group Futures Academy welcomes its 2021 cohort

This week Lucid welcomed its newest cohort of graduates onto the 2021 Futures Academy programme. The programme provides graduates with a 12-month structured medical writing training programme. It’s a chance...

Our People and their Growth are at the heart of #LucidLife

2020 has been a year like no other, in more ways than one. We wanted to shine a light on the good and great of 2020 and reflect on far...

Advance Outcomes named of the most innovative strategies of 2020 by PM360

PM360, a leading trade magazine for marketing decision makers in the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and diagnostics industries, has named Lucid Group’s pioneering behaviour-change methodology, Advance OutcomesTM, as one of...

Lucid Group Evolve and Simplify its Brand Architecture

The current pandemic has forced many industries to find new ways of working. Within medical communications (medcomms), this has involved pivoting quickly towards a digital-first approach in order to optimise...

Laurence Bannister joins Lucid Group as its new Chief Commercial Officer

Laurence brings a track record of success from 22 years’ experience in pharmaceuticals/healthcare – across affiliate, regional and global commercial roles – with the last 9 years being at STEM...

A Lucid Group Thirsty Thursday: change management and self-efficacy

Last week, Lucid Group were lucky enough to have Richard Nugent, Founder and Managing Director of TwentyOne Leadership, present a session on change management and self-efficacy. Richard often works with...

Lucid Group expand its UK office footprint in Macclesfield

Lucid Group is increasing its share of office space on the popular Tytherington Business Village, after a sustained period of growth, which has seen it outperform a buoyant marketplace and taken...

Lucid Group are keeping wellness front of mind

It's important to make sure that people are supported and encouraged to practice self-care throughout the year. This is why Lucid Group has been reminding its teams of the LucidBeing...