Shifts in the Healthcare Landscape and Implications for Evolving Continuing Education

The pace of change in healthcare is staggering and it does not appear it will slow down anytime soon. Clinicians today face a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape characterized by medical innovation, improved diagnostics, an ever-increasing volume of new scientific knowledge, and increased time and cost pressures. The introduction of new technology and increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have a place in this landscape.
This evolution is fundamentally changing the role of the clinician and resetting the educational programming needs for individual learners and systems. All this translates into a serious call to action for the field of Continuing Education (CE). This topic is the focus of a perspectives piece entitled, "Necessary Disruption: A Serious Call to Action for Continuing Education”, which was recently published in the Almanac. Changes include tech-enabled learning through new decision support tools and technologies, personalized learning experiences, and evidence-based clinical management.
Do you ever wonder where to begin to navigate the whirlwind that accompanies this collective call to action? Advancements in the field can be considered disruptive, as they highlight our need to stay in step by adopting new approaches, making use of the evolving technology, applying new educational designs and tools, and improving our overall use of data. All this while acknowledging learner expectations and faculty needs are changing, and our desire for patient centeredness and improved outcomes are unwavering.

Session Description: This 90-minutes session is designed to help advance this critical conversation and begin to generate specific plans of action to address the disruption that is necessary for CE. More specifically, this session will provide an opportunity for Alliance conference attendees from across all member groups to examine the shifts that are occurring in the field, along with the resulting short-term and longer-term implications being realized across the CE field.
The design of the workshop will involve an interactive blend of presentations, small-group discussion, reflection, feedback, and action planning. The session is designed to promote critical reflection and discussion, leverage the insights of an experienced panel of CE professionals, all in the interest of reimagining the best approach to support and advance clinician learning in a patient-centered, tech-enabled world. Attention will be paid to the role education can play at the individual and organizational level to develop the future skills and leadership approaches necessary for ongoing professional success.

This session will involve a review and discussion of how and where opportunities exist to leverage technology to redefine and transform continuous learning to better assist clinicians in keeping pace with the persistent and rapid changes in the medical landscape.
Drawing from several highlights in the Alliance Perspective piece ("Necessary Disruption: A Serious Call to Action for Continuing Education”) we will engage participants in discussions designed to identify specific goals. A key takeaway of the session will be to collectively outline tangible action steps necessary to advance the critical efforts for change (at the individual, organizational, and system levels).

Key themes to be discussed include:
• Shifts in the Healthcare Landscape;
• Opportunity to Evolve Educational Design (formats, design)
• Integration of Broader Learning Sciences (Critical Reasoning, Behavioral Change, Knowledge Networks)
• Adapting to Changes in the Systems of Learning Measurement, Data Capture & Impact Assessment

The overall objective of this session (and the perspective paper) is to issue a call to action for CE professionals to embrace the evolving field of healthcare and to view the need for dramatic change as a necessary disruption. By embracing the need for immediate change, CE will be better able to leverage its unique position in the healthcare system, to increase its ability to remain relevant, and to be seen as a valued contributor and a key lever for change to meet the demands of the evolving healthcare landscape. This means adding value as a focused and skilled group of professionals actively involved in effectively meeting the future needs of the healthcare system.