Department of Family Medicine
Faculty Development
The Problem, or "I'm drowning in white
water!"
Health care has been and will continue to be in a state of flux. This is a condition of "permanent white water" and only those who can navigate the rapids will experience career success. This is true today not only for medicine but equally true in business and academic environments.
The Solution, or "How to move skillfully through the rapids"
Slow pace and doing (and teaching) things the same old way aren't the rule anymore. We must now continually be learning new concepts and new applications of existing concepts if we want to not only keep our heads above water, but also to swim in the directions we choose. It is a huge challenge...and it is also a great opportunity.
Development of expertise in several core competencies will help us feel significantly more able to navigate in the white water environment that is healthcare today.
Core Competencies
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Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Becoming successful at encouraging patients to take charge of their own health requires understanding how human beings change behavior and tailoring interventions accordingly. |
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Evidence Based Medicine Learning to read and evaluate the latest evidence available will change the way we practice and positively impact the lives of patients. |
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Teaching Efficiency Being an effective teacher of medical students and Residents is not an in-born trait. Teaching success is based on skills and methods we learn and use. |
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Quality Assurance Quality assurance in clinical practice is driven by limited resources, changes in insurance coverage, a shift from paternalism to participation and decision making by the patient, and patient demands and expectations. Learning sound methods for assessing quality will keep us in control of the only thing we can control: the way we deliver healthcare. Especially in terms of dealing with managed care agencies, awareness of effectiveness is power. |
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Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) COPC offers physicians the opportunity to impact significantly larger populations and ultimately to alter a community's health. A change in overall health in the community is reflected in better health for each individual patient the physician treats on a daily basis. |
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Medical Informatics Medical Informatics is the collection of electronic tools that enables the clinician to apply that data and knowledge in the decision-making process at the time and place a medical decision needs to be made. In today's world, ignorance of computer information systems = ignorance. Use of Medical Informatics is a skill we can learn. |
Being an effective physician is more challenging now than at any time in the history of medicine.
We don't want to drown in "white water" -- we can learn to navigate by developing expertise in these fundamental competencies upon which we can build future learning -- and future success.
Contact Information
| Dr. Peggy J. Wagner Research Director Email: pwagner@mcg.edu (706) 721-7589 |