Miller Professional Group (MPG)

Scope of Programming

Miller Professional Group is the exclusive medical education company for the American Society of Clinical Rheumatologists. Since 2004 MPG has successfully conducted over 350 live educational programs as both IME and CME. The programs have been presented at medical society meetings, and at meetings of national scope (such as The Congress of Clinical Rheumatology). The live programs have been presented as half day symposia, dinner, lunchtime and breakfast programs, and hospital grand rounds. In addition to live programming MPG has successfully produced on line CME activities, such as CME webcasts, newsletters and monographs; and print newsletters and monographs. The target audiences of the educational programs implemented by MPG have been quite diverse. The participants in MPG programs have been rheumatologists, dermatologists, primary care physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and office staff members involved in the treatment of patients with rheumatologic conditions. In all programs conducted to date, MPG has consistently met and in 98% of its programs exceeded targeted attendance numbers, educating over 5000 physicians and physician extenders.

Faculty and Content Development

MPG has extensive experience overseeing the development of program agendas and CME curricula, in executing all phases of meeting logistics, in producing and conducting curriculum development meetings, speaker training programs, and advisory boards. MPG recruits and assembles a faculty with a diverse background. The faculty recruited by MPG possesses nationally recognized expertise in the rheumatologic and musculoskeletal topics to be developed and presented. These experts have recognized familiarity with the subjects identified in the needs assessment and the learning objectives. Typically, the scientific chair and faculty selected to develop and present the educational programs have presented lectures on the subject matter at national, state and/or regional meetings; at academic training programs, and often have conducted research on and/or have published articles on the subject matter, and/or have served as consultants on aspects of the subject matter. MPG also has engaged expert biostatisticians to assist in evaluating program outcomes measures.

Educational Outcomes and Behavior Change

MPG's Director of Educational Services has a degree in Education, and a PhD in Psychology. The Director is an expert in learning theory and behavior change. Under her guidance MPG has developed unique and creative measures for influencing attendee behavior, and has developed sophisticated outcome measures to access the effectiveness of its educational programming. Those attending its live programs have been sent case study monographs assessing learning retention and behavior change after the completion of the live program. MPG has also utilized pre and post meeting surveys to measure attendee behavior change, and change retention at intervals of two to three months following a live educational program. Further, MPG has compared attendee behavior following participation in a live educational program to the behavior of comparator doctors who have not attended its programs; thus demonstrating the effectiveness its program in affecting attendee physician behavior. A manuscript describing how the CME programs conducted by MPG resulted in a change in physician behavior has been published in the Journal of Rheumatology. MPG has also developed its own successful live programming educational model; with physicians educating physicians with in their own communities; and serving as enduring resources to those they have educated.

Multi-Sponsored Programming

MPG has received sponsorship from multiple sponsors for its educational activities. In 2007, 2008, and 2009, MPG has executed CME programs funded through joint sponsorship of commercial sponsors. To date MPG programs have been funded by Abbott Immunology, Amgen, Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Centocor, Crescendo Bioscience ,Genentech, Ortho Biotech, Sanofi-Aventis, Smith & Nephew, Roche, TAP Pharmaceuticals, UCB, and, URL.

Accreditation

MPG educational programs are jointly sponsored by an accredited provider and adhere to the Standards for Commercial Support of CME of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (www.accme.org). Examples of MPG developed CME accredited power point slide presentations, and on line CME activities may be viewed by clicking on the CME activities or the Power Point Workshop link at www.ascr.us.