Pri-Med and American College of Physicians Expand Education Partnership in Multi-Year Deal

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 28, 2013) -  Pri-Med, the leading provider of professional medical education to a community of more than 260,000 clinicians, today announced a partnership with the American College of Physicians (ACP) to develop a new national continuing medical education (CME) curriculum that will support educational content for over 90 percent of the live meetings offered through Pri-Med in 2014, including new online initiatives customized for specialists and primary care clinicians. 

"Our work with ACP is a natural extension of an association partnership that began four years ago to advance new education formats, innovate beyond single-topic sessions, and address holistically how live and online education can remedy general practice deficiencies," said Marissa Seligman, PharmD, Chief of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs. "By working with such a highly regarded medical-specialty organization, Pri-Med is further positioned to provide quality, world-class professional medical education nationally that is inclusive of clinical conditions most commonly treated by healthcare practitioners today."

Pri-Med and ACP began developing content in 2009 for the regional Pri-Med Access series in response to clinician demand for educational content that was more relevant to today's complex patient, who requires more coordinated, team-based care. Recent statistics show that over a 10 to 15-year period, the prevalence of primary care clinicians facing more complex disease states, including obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, has increased by 35 percent, 48 percent and 19 percent, respectively¹. Pri-Med's Integrated Approaches to Cardiometabolic Care (IACC) conference in 2012 illustrated promising results in terms of encouraging team-based care for the complex patient, with 92 percent² of participants reportedly better prepared to collaborate with doctors outside of their practice area and coordinate care for patients with cardiometabolic disease. Pri-Med's expanded curriculum partnership with the ACP is partly in response to the need to better equip clinicians with new content and formats that promote and encourage team-based learning.

"We share Pri-Med's excitement to broaden the reach of our partnership by developing a national medical education curriculum that more closely aligns with the clinical care gaps and subspecialty needs of healthcare providers working in the field of primary care," said Patrick C. Alguire, MD, FACP, ACP's senior vice president for Medical Education. "ACP and Pri-Med uphold the same ideals of providing high-quality, unbiased education that extends well beyond the live setting and ultimately improves patient care."

With an expanded ACP relationship in place for 2013, Pri-Med will focus on two major development initiatives. First, Pri-Med will re-launch its popular Annual Conference series in Rosemont, Ill., with a more integrated role for ACP. Second, Pri-Med will develop an online content library to support its vision of custom CME at the point of care recently made possible by the November 2012 acquisition of Amazing Charts.

About Pri-Med
Pri‐Med is an operating division of Diversified Business Communications. Based in Boston, Mass., the organization has been a trusted source for professional medical education to over 260,000 clinicians since 1995. Through live meetings in over 30 U.S. cities and online at www.pri-med.com, actively practicing clinicians rely on Pri‐Med for opportunities to engage with local peers, meet internationally renowned faculty and participate in world‐class educational activities. For more information, visit: www.pri-med.com.

About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 133,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.

About Diversified Business Communications
Diversified Business Communications, based in Portland, Maine, provides information and market access through face-to-face events, magazine publishing, and eMedia on four continents. In addition to health care, Diversified serves a number of industries including: technology, retail, food and hospitality and business management solutions. Diversified operates divisions in Australia, Hong Kong, India, the UK and Canada.

¹ Grundy, SM, Cleeman JI, Daniels SR, et al. Diagnosis and management of the metabolic syndrome. An American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Scientific Statement. Executive summary. Cardiol. Rev. 2005;13:322-327.; Isomaa B, Almgren P, Tuomi T, et al. Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with the metabolic syndrome. Diabetes Care. 2001;24:683-689.

² Based on IACC survey results obtained June 15, 2012