Academy Unveils Fourth METRIC Module

Family physicians looking for ways to improve the care they provide to their patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, should check out COPD: Improving Patient Care, which launched Feb. 15. It is the newest module in AAFP's performance improvement program known as METRIC, or Measuring, Evaluating and Translating Research Into Care.

According to Bruce Bagley, M.D., AAFP's medical director of quality improvement, COPD was chosen as METRIC's latest clinical topic -- following previously released modules on diabetes, coronary artery disease and asthma -- because COPD is yet another common chronic illness frequently treated by FPs.

"The typical family physician will have enough patients with COPD to make METRIC's systematic approach valuable," said Bagley.

"METRIC helps physicians and their office staff -- utilizing a team approach -- think in a systematic way about what things every person with COPD should get every time he or she comes into the office. It's all about doing the right thing for the right patient at the right time -- every time," said Bagley.

Working through this COPD module will help physicians improve their diagnostic approach -- such as using pulmonary function testing rather than relying on X-ray findings alone -- and develop a systematic approach to the treatment of COPD, said Bagley.

METRIC, which was first made available to physicians in 2005, was designed as a performance improvement initiative that would link evidence-based medical practice with education and give physicians the opportunity to evaluate their management of chronic diseases as well as measure and improve patient outcomes.

Feedback from practices that have participated in METRIC has exceeded expectations, said Bagley. More than 90 percent of practices that have responded to post-user METRIC evaluation surveys said they've made permanent changes in their office flow or function.

Early on, METRIC developers were afraid METRIC users "would take on a 'project mentality,' that is, they would finish a module and then say, 'Well, I did that, now I'll get back to business as usual,'" said Bagley.

But that's not been the case. "What we've found is that when practices make changes -- such as developing a disease registry or enhancing patient education for a particular chronic illness -- the value of those systematic changes is recognized and translates to all patient care," Bagley said.

Participation in METRIC can help FPs fulfill the requirement for Part IV -- the performance-in-practice module -- of the American Board of Family Medicine's Maintenance of Certification Program for Family Physicians. In addition, more than 40 family medicine residency programs nationwide have used METRIC to fulfill Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirements for quality improvement projects.

The METRIC COPD module was made possible thanks to educational grants from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer Inc.