CME Mission and Needs Assessments

The Vision of ASRA

Regional anesthesia is the subspecialty of the medical discipline of anesthesiology dedicated to its use as a modality to provide health care for patients undergoing treatment related to surgery, obstetrics and pain control for acute, chronic and/or trauma induced conditions.

The vision of ASRA shall be to affiliate into one organization all anesthesiologists, other physicians and scientists and thereby promote the advancement of scientific knowledge through education and research about the multi-faceted uses of regional anesthesia and pain management for health care.

The Mission of the ASRA CME Program

The mission of the ASRA CME Programs shall be to provide anesthesiologists, as well as other physicians, with the opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills to achieve the Society’s Vision.  The ASRA Committee on Education Committee, under the direction of the Vice-President, shall have the responsibility for the CME programs.  The Vice-President shall report to the Board of Directors at the times the Board of Directors shall meet and to the Executive Committee in the interim.

The Goals of the ASRA CME Programs

1. To provide ongoing educational activities designed to teach practicing physician, residents and fellows and to provide regional anesthesia for the ultimate benefit of the patient.
2. To offer open scientific meetings for the presentation of new clinical insights, research findings, hands-on applications and refresher courses that will enhance the knowledge about the effectiveness and cost-efficiencies of regional anesthesia and pain medicine.
3. To also provide in a timely fashion, state of the art meetings, that deal with specific topics which will enhance the registrants’ contemporary knowledge and/or practice.
4. To provide the above in full compliance with the ACCME Essential requirements, to consider joint sponsorship of meetings with non-accredited entities that meet the mission of ASRA.

Types of Educational Formats

Educational activities shall contain any or all of the following formats: plenary sessions, concurrent sessions, hands-on workshops, master classes, refresher courses, poster discussion sessions and videotape sessions.

Participants in ASRA CME Activities

1. Attendance shall be open to all health care practitioners who meet the registration requirements.
2. CME credit shall only be offered to M.D.’s and D.O.’s.   Certificates of attendance will be offered to all registrants.

Measurement of Results

Attendees at all CME functions shall be surveyed both during the program and following the program to determine the effectiveness of invited speakers, the practicality of the subject matter, whether or not stated objectives were me, the content of the presentation was free of commercial bias, whether or not the speaker should be invited to speak at future meetings and whether or not the subject matter should be repeated at future meetings.  Post meeting follow up shall be used to determine whether or not the participant used the information learned was put to use in their practice.

Publications

All members of the Society shall a subscription to Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, the official journal of the Society.  The journal shall be published six times a year and be an indexed and peer reviewed publication of original articles, review articles and Letters to the Editors.   The Society shall maintain a Web site <www.asra.com> containing information on meetings, literature reviews, membership and the most recent issue of the ASRA Newsletter.