Managing Medical Practice is Focus of Redesigned Curriculum For Residents, New Physicians

To ensure family medicine residency program directors have the most up-to-date educational resources they need at their fingertips, the AAFP has redesigned its practice management curriculum for physicians-in-training, From Residency to Reality. The curriculum now comes preloaded on one CD-ROM that is formatted for both PC and Mac users. Curriculum modules are provided as PDFs, as well as PowerPoint slides.

The From Residency to Reality curriculum was redesigned to be easier for members to use and teach, according to Katy Jaksa, AAFP education services and special projects manager. The older product, she explained, just wasn't very user-friendly and had instructors flipping back and forth from electronic to hard copy resources.

"This new design is a turn-key, off-the-shelf, ready-to-use product in that the speakers' notes and pre- and posttest answers are right there in the PowerPoint presentation and PDF files," said Jaksa.

Produced by the AAFP in collaboration with TransforMED, its wholly owned subsidiary, and the Center for Health IT, the goal of the curriculum is to teach residents -- as well as practicing family physicians -- the knowledge, skills and approaches they'll need to successfully manage a practice and achieve long-term professional and personal success in the new health care reform environment.

"As practices and health care settings evolve, residents and practicing physicians will experience a continuing spectrum of change in organization, finance, administration and patient care," said AAFP Vice President for Education Perry Pugno, M.D., M.P.H.

"Physicians must understand practice management to make appropriate personal choices, advocate for the highest standard in the delivery of patient care, and fulfill ethical and legal responsibilities," he told AAFP News Now.

In addition to program directors, faculty and residents, the curriculum will be useful to new-to-practice physicians, who need point-of-care resources to help them establish a practice, and to established physicians, who need to revise their current methods and processes.

The redesigned curriculum features more than 100 hours of content on financial management, change management, cost/benefit decision-making, care coordination and physician-patient communication. It discusses practice innovations, such as the patient-centered medical home; family medicine practice competencies, including leadership, management and team-based care; and issues facing new and practicing family physicians.

Modules included in the package cover such topics as

The modules feature various learning activities and resources, including interactive lectures; discussions; team projects; and websites, articles, readings and references.

AAFP Insurance Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the AAFP Foundation, recently sponsored free distribution of two of the modules on financial planning to the 451 family medicine residency program directors.

Program directors and others can order From Residency to Reality at a price of $350 for the initial copy and $75 for additional copies by calling the AAFP Contact Center at (800) 274-2237.