ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) concept, essential functions of primary care, and an appropriate primary care workforce have been shown to improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs. This paper describes a curriculum that uses the PCMH and related health policy concepts as the foundation for didactic, clinical, and self-directed elements. The PCMH-focused curriculum improved overall student clerkship ratings and maintained student performance on the National Board of Medical Education subject exam.
Subject(s)
Clinical Clerkship , Clinical Competence/statistics & numerical data , Curriculum , Education, Medical, Graduate/methods , Family Practice/education , Patient-Centered Care/methods , Clinical Competence/standards , Education, Medical, Graduate/standards , Family Practice/standards , Health Care Surveys , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Health Policy , Humans , Models, Educational , Patient-Centered Care/standards , Specialty Boards , United StatesABSTRACT
The Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) relies on comprehensive, consistent, and accessible communication for the patient with all members of their health care team. "E-medicine" and health information technology (HIT) create many new possibilities in addition to standard face-to-face encounters. There is interest by both physicians and patients for enhanced access through electronic communication. However, there is little published literature regarding specific educational programs for medical professionals using electronic communication with patients. Faculty in a required 6-week family medicine clerkship developed, implemented, and evaluated an electronic health communication curriculum. This curriculum consists of a didactic session on electronic health communication including anticipated errors of communication and common clinical pitfalls. Each clerkship student receives a weekly e-mail from a standardized patient centered on a clinical question. Additionally, each e-mail contains a different communication challenge or predicted error. Students receive feedback each week on the e-mails and are evaluated with an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) during the final week. The results of the weekly e-mails and the final OSCE show that students improve overall but continue to make predicted errors in communication despite didactic instruction and actual practice. These results reinforce the need for medical student education on electronic health communication with patients.
