UNMC’s annual Family Medicine Board Review Course is a gem among practitioners.
Jeffrey Susman, M.D., chairman of the family medicine department at the University of Cincinnati, says it is probably the “nation’s best known, best loved course.”
For the past 35 years, the two-week spring course has provided physicians preparing for the American Board of Family Medicine board exam with comprehensive reviews and updates on all major subject areas in family medicine from anesthesiology to urology.
“The only way we can get this done is with the tremendous volunteer effort by the UNMC faculty,” said Michael Sitorius, M.D., course director and chairman of family medicine at UNMC. “There is a tremendous spirit of volunteering, as well as an interest in educating their colleagues and a commitment to the reputation of the institution.”
Approximately 80 UNMC faculty members participate in the review course, which recently ran from April 24 through May 5. “We have outstanding speakers and educators and I hear that time and time again, both locally and when I travel nationally,” Dr. Sitorius said.
Introduced 35 years ago, UNMC offered one of the first board review courses in the nation, Dr. Sitorius said. Today, participants earn up to 94 continuing medical education hours during the two-week course.
“A lot of review courses give you 20 minutes of ‘how to,’ ” Dr. Sitorius said. “Ours combines practical, useful information and also cutting-edge information. That’s why people come back.”
This year’s board review course drew more than 40 people each week, said Joan Husted, program associate in the UNMC Center for Continuing Education.
Dr. Sitorius praised Husted for spearheading the conference the past five years and Brenda Ram, senior program associate in the Center for Continuing Education, for her earlier involvement. “They do such a good job of making these people feel like they’re home away from home,” he said.
Attendees receive three, three-ring binders chock full of information and have the option of buying a self-study package, complete with videotapes of every lecture.
UNMC’s course is one of few to offer daily testing for participants, Husted said. To assess their level of knowledge attendees are given a voluntary pretest at the beginning of the course. They also have the option of taking daily quizzes of up to 25 questions, based on the previous day’s lectures, to assess how much they learned and retained. A weekly exam is given at the end of each week.
Dr. Susman returns to UNMC each year to lead a session or two. From 1987 to 1999, he served as professor and vice chairman of the UNMC Department of Family Medicine.
“This is one of the few nationally recognized courses in family medicine review,” said Dr. Susman, who lectured on sleep and aging and low back problems. “It’s an unbiased, comprehensive review of family medicine and probably the nation’s best known, best loved course.”
Although a proliferation of alternative continuing medical education courses have evolved over the years, Dr. Susman said, UNMC’s course stands apart. “This course is sponsored by those fees that are paid in registration. The beauty of this course is you can get your entire education in one shot if you stay the two weeks.”
He plans to return for the course whenever possible. “This is one of those jewels people tend to take for granted,” he said.