Innovation and Research in Physician Education
Melissa Klein, MD, is principal investigator for two new training grants, totaling $2.8 million, which are expanding our academic focus on physician education. The General Pediatric Master Educator Fellowship is a unique fellowship in medical education funded by a HRSA Faculty Development in Primary Care award. The goal is to train highly qualified academic medical educators to understand and apply the core competencies of adult learning theory. Fellows will complete a Master’s degree in Education, obtaining the skills to develop, implement, and rigorously evaluate innovative medical education curricula. A second HRSA grant expands the Primary Care Track of our residency program by 30 percent. This program allows pediatric residents to individualize their educational plan in preparation for a future career in primary care emphasizing care of children from underserved communities.
Shared Decision-Making to Improve Care in Pediatrics
With funding from a Cincinnati Children’s Place Outcomes Research Award and the National Institute of Mental Health, William Brinkman MD, MEd, is working to translate research into clinical practice using shared decision-making between patients, parents and clinicians to ensure that care is evidence-based, family-centered, and of high value. Brinkman led a multi-disciplinary team that included parents, pediatricians, psychologists, and graphic designers to develop an intervention to facilitate shared decision-making about treatment for children newly diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The intervention was tested by seven pediatricians in five community-based primary care practices. Compared to controls, parents who received the intervention were more involved in decision-making, more knowledgeable and less conflicted about treatment options. Visit duration was unchanged. This project has led to presentations at four national and international meetings, one publication, and one manuscript currently under review. Brinkman is applying for NIH funding to expand the intervention and embed it within an existing web-based ADHD quality improvement program.
Using the ADHD intervention development process as a prototype, shared decision-making is being applied in new clinical areas. Currently, Brinkman and colleagues are working on grant-funded studies to develop and test shared decision-making interventions for human papilloma virus vaccination and treatment for juvenile idiopathic arthritis. In addition, he is working with the Anderson Center to build an infrastructure to support shared decision-making throughout the institution.
Innovation and Research in Physician Education
The increasingly rigorous approach to physician training and evaluation has been successfully applied as the Division develops innovative services for at-risk children. Resident education and curriculum evaluation have been integral to two new programs – the Child Health Law Partnership (Child HeLP) with the Legal Aid Society) and Keeping Infants Nourished and Developing (KIND) with the FreeStore FoodBank. Klein, Robert Kahn, MD, MPH, and colleagues have published eight manuscripts in the past year highlighting the positive effects of these programs on residents’ knowledge and clinical practice in identification of social factors affecting child health. A PCT resident was the first author on two of these manuscripts.
