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Physician Continuing Medical Education

Purpose/Goals

Torrance Memorial Medical Center is a California Medical Association accredited provider of Category I continuing medical education activities. The CME Program strives to keep physicians abreast of new advances in the field of Medicine and to enhance the quality of health care. To accomplish these goals high-quality CME activities are developed and scheduled in order to meet the educational demands and needs of physicians to expand their professional knowledge and skills, as well as to improve patient care outcomes.

Content

CME activities relate to patient care, community and public health, preventive medicine, clinical research and new diagnostic and treatment modalities. Subject content includes performance improvement, risk management, pain management, cultural diversity, linguistic competency, health standards, legal aspects of clinical medicine, bioethics, professional ethics and physician-patient relationship.

Target Audience

The focus of the CME Program is the education of Torrance Memorial Medical Center Medical Staff members. The majority of activities are designed for the primary care physician, including general practitioners, internists, general surgeons and physicians from a variety of subspecialties. However, multi-disciplinary attendance is encouraged.

Expected Results

Program objectives are clearly stated and each activity is evaluated according to whether or not the needs are fulfilled and the objectives accomplished. Participants are expected to learn or refine a skill as well as to apply what was learned to their daily practice. All programs are monitored to insure they are free of commercial bias.

CME Accreditation

Torrance Memorial Medical Center is accredited by the Institute for Medical Quality/California Medical Association to provide continuing medical education for physicians. CME activities are consistent with the accreditation standards of the California Medical Association and the Institute of Medical Quality and are in compliance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education's "Standards for Commercial Support of Continuing Medical Education".

CME Category I Credit

CME activities sponsored by Torrance Memorial Medical Center are granted Category I credit on an hour for hour basis toward the California Medical Association's Certification in Continuing Medical Education and the American Medical Association's Physician's Recognition Award. To receive credit physicians must attend the greater part of the program. They must also complete and sign an evaluation form or sign an attendance sheet.

Standing CME Activities

Standing CME activities are regularly occurring programs held at Torrance Memorial Medical Center and are only available to physicians affiliated with the medical center. A calendar listing these programs is published monthly in the Medical Staff Exchange, a newsletter for physicians affiliated with Torrance Memorial Medical Center. Following are regularly scheduled CME activities:

Breast Tumor Board is held weekly every Thursday and provides a forum for discussion and prospective evaluation pertaining to breast cancer case presentations. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit.

Cardiac Cath Conference is held weekly, every Monday and provides a forum for discussion and evaluation pertaining to cardiac surgery and/or cardiac case presentations. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit.

Frontiers in Addiction Treatment is held bimonthly and provides updates on the treatment of addiction disorders. This activity provides 2.5 hours CME Category I credit.

General Tumor Board is held weekly every Thursday, and provides a forum for discussion and evaluation pertaining to oncology case presentations. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit.

Gynecology Conference is held quarterly, and provides updates on diagnostic and treatment advances in the field of gynecology. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit.

Pediatric Outreach Conference is held monthly every third Thursday, and provides an update on various topics related to pediatric patient care. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit.

Perinatal Outreach Conference is held monthly every fourth Thursday and provides an update on various topics related to perinatal and neonatal patient care. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit.

South Bay Airway Management Workshop is held twice per year and provides an update on anesthesia practices and airway management instruction. This activity provides 8 hours CME Category I credit.

Wednesday CME Conferences

Wednesday CME Conferences are held three times a month on Wednesday, excluding the fifth week of a month, and feature speakers who are on the faculty of teaching institutions in California and other regions of the United States. Topics pertain to patient care and related issues and are selected on a need-basis as expressed by individual Medical Staff members, departments or committees affiliated with Torrance Memorial. Conferences are held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the hospital's Health Conference Center and a buffet luncheon is served during the presentation. All physicians are welcome to attend. This activity provides 1 hour CME Category I credit. An automated listing of scheduled conferences may be accessed by calling the CME telephone number at 310-784-8776.

Calendar of Wednesday CME Conferences

July 2, 2008
No Conference

July 9, 2008
Pediatric Fever
Marianne Gausche-Hill, M.D.
UCLA School of Medicine

July 16, 2008
Healthcare-Associated MRSA
David Pegues, M.D.
UCLA School of Medicine

July 23, 2008
Breast Cancer
Dennis Holmes, M.D.
USC School of Medicine

July 30, 2008
No Conference

August 6, 2008
Chest Pain
William French, M.D.
UCLA School of Medicine

August 13, 2008
No Conference

August 20, 2008
Cardiac Arrhythmias
Bramah Singh, M.D.
UCLA School of Medicine

August 27, 2008
Non-Surgical Treatment of Benign and Malignant Brain Neoplasms
Antonio DeSalles, M.D.
UCLA School of Medicine

Torrance Memorial Medical Center is accredited by the Institute for Medical Quality/California Medical Association (IMQ/CMA) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Torrance Memorial Medical Center takes responsibility for the content, quality and scientific integrity of this CME activity.

Torrance Memorial Medical Center designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category I credit™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This credit may also be applied to the CMA Certification in Continuing Medical Education.

Please note that calendar listings are subject to change without prior notice. To avoid any inconvenience you may call the CME Telephone Number which contains up-to-the-minute information regarding programs.

Services

CME Telephone Number 310-784-8776: This phone number provides quick and easy access to information pertaining to the CME program. The two menu options are:

  • Option 1--Wednesday CME calendar (includes date, topic and speaker for the weekly Wednesday CME Conferences)
  • Option 3--request for CME credits (to leave a message requesting a written summary of CME Category I credits) OR leave a message or speak to the Health Sciences Librarian/CME Coordinator. (This option automatically transfers to the main Medical Library extension.)

CME Records: Upon request, physicians may receive via mail a written copy of their CME Category I Conference Attendance Summary that lists all Torrance Memorial-sponsored educational activities with dates and CME credits. Records are maintained for a minimum of six years.

Wednesday CME Conference Recordings: DVD recordings of Wednesday CME Conferences are available and may be borrowed for one week through the Medical Library. Only physicians of Torrance Memorial Medical Center may have circulation privileges.

Medical Library: The Torrance Memorial Medical Library provides a center of readily available books, journals, audiovisuals, and services to meet the occupational, educational, research and personal needs of the medical center's physicians, employees, volunteers, patients and their families and the general public. Services include an online card catelog, ready reference, circulation, photocopy service, interlibrary loan, literature searches, audio-visual equipment and personal computers with Internet access.

External Internet Web Links

American Medical Association
http://www.ama-assn.org

California Medical Association
http://www.cmanet.org

CME-access.com
http://www.cme-access.com

Congress Resource Center
http://www.docguide.com/crc.nsf/web-byspec

Institute for Medical Quality
http://www.imq.org

MD Consult
http://www.mdconsult.com

MedicalConferences.com
http://www.medicalconferences.com

MEDLINEplus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus

Medscape CME Center
http://cmecenter.medscape.com/HOME/CMEcenter/CMECenter.html

Hours

Monday - Friday: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm (Please call before visiting)
Weekends & Holidays: Closed

Location

First floor, West Tower (The CME Program is located in the Medical Library)

Telephone

310-517-4720

DISCLAIMER

Torrance Memorial Medical Center Continuing Medical Education Program makes reasonable and diligent efforts to provide current and accurate information for clients. In addition, the CME Program makes no warrant as to the currency, accuracy or comprehensiveness of the information in the databases, reference works and other materials referenced in external internet sites and disclaims any liability for errors in the information, data or other materials provided to clients. Linking to external internet sites, or sites where these might lead, does not imply endorsement or promotion of the products, services or content by the Torrance Memorial Medical Center CME Program.