The AAFP's quality improvement initiative known as METRIC -- Measuring, Evaluating and Translating Research Into Care -- has a second module online and ready for members to tackle.
Academy Launches Second METRIC Module
By Sheri Porter
7/22/2005
Coronary Artery Disease: Improving Patient Care launched July 18, just six months after METRIC debuted with its diabetes module.
METRIC allows physicians to earn CME credit right in their offices as they complete practice-based performance measurement and improvement projects. The AAFP plans to offer two new METRIC modules each calendar year, and each module will be reviewed for 20 AAFP Prescribed CME credits.
Bruce Bagley, M.D., AAFP's medical director of quality improvement, sees METRIC as a unique platform to engage family physicians in quality improvement work in their practices.
"Using METRIC will help teach physicians and their office staff important skills for measuring and improving quality, reliability and service," Bagley said. "In the near future, these same skills will serve physicians well when pay-for-performance programs become part of the health care system payment strategy."
According to Bagley, the METRIC team chose CAD as a clinical topic largely because FPs treat many patients with the disease. "The Academy is also committed to developing modules around clinical topics that already have nationally accepted, evidence-based performance measures," said Bagley.
Bagley said as physicians work through the new module, one of their tasks is to decide which of many possible interventions to implement with the goal of improving the care they provide to patients with CAD. Those interventions could include the use of office systems such as flow sheets and reminder procedures, disease registry systems, or care coordination by a nonphysician staff member. "Collecting data using prospective data collection sheets or templates and then reporting the results of that data is another skill we hope to teach," Bagley said.
FP Ann Motta, M.D., of Great Neck, N.Y. is completing the diabetes module and answered a METRIC staff request for feedback from users. In her e-mail response, she said the module was easy to navigate. "It led me through the process of inputting my clinical patient information and then helped me formulate a plan of action for improvement in my office, Motta said. She also said she's looking forward to the next step -- that of measuring health changes -- in her patients with diabetes.
The METRIC initiative was designed to help FPs fulfill the requirement for Part IV of the American Board of Family Medicine's Maintenance of Certification Program for Family Physicians. The CAD module was made possible thanks to an educational grant from Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals.
METRIC allows physicians to earn CME credit right in their offices as they complete practice-based performance measurement and improvement projects. The AAFP plans to offer two new METRIC modules each calendar year, and each module will be reviewed for 20 AAFP Prescribed CME credits.
Bruce Bagley, M.D., AAFP's medical director of quality improvement, sees METRIC as a unique platform to engage family physicians in quality improvement work in their practices.
"Using METRIC will help teach physicians and their office staff important skills for measuring and improving quality, reliability and service," Bagley said. "In the near future, these same skills will serve physicians well when pay-for-performance programs become part of the health care system payment strategy."
According to Bagley, the METRIC team chose CAD as a clinical topic largely because FPs treat many patients with the disease. "The Academy is also committed to developing modules around clinical topics that already have nationally accepted, evidence-based performance measures," said Bagley.
Bagley said as physicians work through the new module, one of their tasks is to decide which of many possible interventions to implement with the goal of improving the care they provide to patients with CAD. Those interventions could include the use of office systems such as flow sheets and reminder procedures, disease registry systems, or care coordination by a nonphysician staff member. "Collecting data using prospective data collection sheets or templates and then reporting the results of that data is another skill we hope to teach," Bagley said.
FP Ann Motta, M.D., of Great Neck, N.Y. is completing the diabetes module and answered a METRIC staff request for feedback from users. In her e-mail response, she said the module was easy to navigate. "It led me through the process of inputting my clinical patient information and then helped me formulate a plan of action for improvement in my office, Motta said. She also said she's looking forward to the next step -- that of measuring health changes -- in her patients with diabetes.
The METRIC initiative was designed to help FPs fulfill the requirement for Part IV of the American Board of Family Medicine's Maintenance of Certification Program for Family Physicians. The CAD module was made possible thanks to an educational grant from Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals.
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