Forty years ago, ABSAME was founded to provide support for medical school faculty and curriculum directors responsible for medical student education. Our Annual Meetings have been continuously directed toward the exchange of ideas and experience in a supportive, collegial atmosphere and take the form of workshops, panel discussions, brief papers and posters.
The 2010 Annual Meeting theme is the third in a series exploring the behavioral competencies identified by the medical education community as critical to good patient care. BEYOND COGNITIVE COMPETENCY is designed to examine how authentic experiences provide a real-world purpose and context for learning and require students to demonstrate complex abilities in situations that demand collaboration, problem solving, research, and communication skills. As primary care has placed a new emphasis on the "medical home," where the focus is on accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective care, the 2010 theme Beyond Cognitive Competence: Linking Community Experiences to Advocacy and Professionalism is designed to facilitate further discussion, thought, and presentation of evidence-based practices in integrated health care. Our goal is to take trainees beyond cognitive competency---a necessary but insufficient level of preparation for the health provider of the 21st century.
Topic Areas for Submission
The Association encourages submission of presentation abstracts relevant to the conference theme as well as other areas relevant to the behavioral sciences and medical education in general. Suggested topics include:
1. Patient Care
- providing compassionate integrated patient care that advocates for the patient
2. Medical Knowledge
- applying social and behavioral sciences principles in clinical practice
3. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
- relating medical information to a patient's health problems and literacy level
4. Interpersonal and Communication Skills
- communicating skillfully across population groups
5. Professionalism
- appreciating the unique characteristics of every patient
- responding ethically to situations/issues that threaten community integrity
6. Systems-Based Practice
- working successfully as a member of an interdisciplinary health care team