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CCOE: Leading the Field

The University Difference

UMDNJ, the largest public health sciences university in the country, provides a resource-rich foundation for Continuing Education excellence.  With eight schools and numerous institutes and centers located on five regional campuses throughout New Jersey, the University provides CCOE with a diversity of approach, culture and expertise that is unmatched in the CE field. 

Looking within our own faculty, CCOE enjoys immediate access to scores of undisputed clinical and research leaders in a broad array of diseases states and scientific disciplines.  Dozens of our full and part-time faculty are consistently ranked by well-respected organizations as being among the ‘Best Doctors in America’ and several more are among the most frequently cited researchers in the world.   This elite UMDNJ brain trust provides CCOE with the opportunity to formulate, test and verify learning needs assessments that can withstand the most meticulous scrutiny.

Along with our roster of content area experts, CCOE also has immediate access to thousands of typical practicing providers through UMDNJ’s statewide network of owned and affiliated healthcare facilities.  This ‘mega-focus group’ allows CCOE to assess the real-world applicability of learning objectives, content, and educational platforms before committing to time-consuming and expensive implementation activities.

While CCOE does enjoy an impressive network of experts through its UMDNJ affiliation, our relationship with first-class talent extends far beyond state lines.  In fact, thanks to its University connections, CCOE has had the opportunity to work with the best and the brightest from throughout the world on a broad array of activities.   Whatever the subject matter or learning need, CCOE can deliver the right type of expertise.

Continuously accredited since 1970, CCOE boasts one of the largest staffs in the field, with the depth and breadth necessary to support complex multi-site and multi-topic national and international programming.  Comprised of experts with advanced degrees in adult and continuing education, medicine, biosciences, and business and with real-world experience in biopharma, education evaluation, private physician practice, and nursing, CCOE brings a multidisciplinary orientation to every task.

With the staffing power to get the job done, CCOE can respond quickly to opportunities presented by potential partners or grantors.   Whether it’s assembling a think tank of experts to build a consensus statement or utilizing the talents of our own Certified Meeting Professionals to organize a symposium half a world away, or anything in-between, CCOE understands the business of education.  That’s one reason why we’re among the top externally funded CE programs in the U.S.

CCOE has fully embraced the transition from the traditional teacher-based educational model to one that is learner-focused and problem-centered.  We know that engaging participants in interactive learning scenarios is the most effective manner to transmit knowledge to adult learners.  But how do we know if that knowledge has been sustained over time or if it has made a difference in behavior or practice? And the even bigger question:  how do we know if that knowledge has had an impact on clinical outcomes?

That’s where CCOE’s educational outcomes division comes in.  Tied directly to the needs assessment, educational outcomes are identified in the earliest stages of an educational activity’s development. From there, supported by expertise in quantitative/qualitative methods, mathematical modeling, and epidemiology from senior faculty at several of UMDNJ’s schools, a wide variety of educational outcomes measurement techniques can be applied, from the simplest control group/participant surveys to the most complex longitudinal studies of providers and patients. Moreover, with access to UMDNJ’s affiliated hospitals, clinics and physician practices, CCOE’s outcomes division can, in certain circumstances, proactively enlist these entities to function as clinical laboratories for controlled outcomes analyses on the most ambitious levels.

Along with its role as a provider of educational outcomes measurement, CCOE is also advancing the art and science of outcomes measurement with the launch of CE Measure, the field’s first peer-reviewed journal dedicated specifically to this topic.  With an editorial board drawn from the who’s who of continuing healthcare education, and a readership among the CE elite, CE Measure will be a driving force in outcomes measurement and analysis for years to come.

CCOE: Ensuring Compliance & Ethical Behavior

Functioning in the post-OIG world is a challenge for all providers of continuing medical education and for those who support such efforts.  The court of public opinion appears ready to find the CE field guilty of conflicts of interest, bias and the propagation of thinly disguised promotional activities.

CCOE has addressed these issues head-on, with a highly evolved conflict of interest policy that ensures the absence of real or perceived violations of all relevant codes and regulations.  With the imprimatur of academic objectivity and independence, CCOE’s programming maintains an impenetrable firewall between outside interests and the establishment of advisory panels, the recruitment of faculty, the development and delivery of content, and the evaluation of outcomes.  CCOE’s strict adherence to both the letter and the spirit of all ethics guidelines is well-recognized in the field and we are often called upon by other CME providers to provide a third-level review of their content to affirm its lack of bias or promotional messages.   

 The rapid growth of new digital technologies and content delivery mechanisms has produced a gold rush approach to its use in continuing education.  While CCOE has extensive experience with the use of new platforms, such as webcasts, interactive e-learning, web portals, etc., and is introducing pod-casting to its portfolio, we always use technology to support, not usurp, the fundamental objectives of an activity.

Our understanding of adult learning principles guides the use of technology to ensure that it is appropriate to the learning styles and expectations among different professions and specialties as well as to the content itself.  Whenever possible, CCOE applies the judicious use of technology to content re-purposing, thus expanding the reach and cost-effectiveness of the activity.

CCOE: Fostering Life-Long Learning

In addition to its accredited educational activities for healthcare and life sciences professionals, CCOE is equally committed to working in partnership with various industries to meet their immediate and ongoing workforce learning needs.  The BioPharma Educational Initiative is a collaborative effort among the University’s eight schools with CCOE to encourage industry workforce participation in existing or customized UMDNJ courses, certificates or degree programs.  

Whether it’s learning about new breakthroughs in informatics, sharpening skills in clinical trials design, getting an intensive exposure to stem cell biology, or any number of subjects in-between, CCOE offers working professionals the opportunity to advance their careers and their productivity through lifelong learning.  With offerings designed to fit into busy schedules while maintaining the highest degree of academic rigor and faculty-student interaction, our BioPharma Educational Initiative is well-positioned to support continued innovation and growth in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and related industries.