PHILADELPHIA, April 22, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dennis Novack, MD, DocCom Editor and Project Director, announces that DocCom, the preeminent online, interactive healthcare communications skills learning system, now offers continuing medical education (CME) for healthcare clinicians. DocCom includes 42 multimedia-rich interactive online modules that describe essential skills for effective practitioner-patient (and -family and -team member) communications, and more than 400 videos in which the module authors demonstrate skills in unscripted and realistic vignettes.
"No other resource comes close to providing healthcare professionals with tools that will vastly improve their communication skills with patients, families, colleagues and team members," says Dr. Novack. "Evidence-based research reflects that poor communication skills lead to poorer patient outcomes, physician burnout and low staff satisfaction, increased malpractice law suits, unnecessary procedures and tests, decreased safety and lower quality care."
Superior communications skills are an essential part of successful professional healthcare practice. Recent patient satisfaction survey (HCAHPS) analysis indicates that the communication dimensions drive higher overall survey scores. With a lot at stake, institutions are improving their clinicians' communication skills using DocCom as an interactive online self-directed learning program. "DocCom users can learn anywhere, anytime," continues Dr. Novack. "In medical schools and residency programs, we are using DocCom as a 'flipped classroom' model, where students learn the skills on their own, and then come together for small group discussions on the topic."
In 2003, faculty of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH) and Drexel University College of Medicine began the creation of DocCom, which debuted in 2006. Now available with 37 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, DocCom is offered by annual subscription for single use for $95 a year or for groups, which can average as low as $25 per user per year. The number of active users has grown from 1,500 in 2006 to more than 25,000 currently. DocCom is now used at more than 80 institutions in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia. DocCom modules have been translated to Japanese, German and Portuguese, with Spanish coming soon.
"Physicians and physician assistants can now obtain their mandatory CME through DocCom," says Dave Kern, MD, president of AACH, which is committed to improving communication and relationships in healthcare. "DocCom's CME program will allow clinicians to easily acquire mandatory credits, while learning critical communication skills necessary for a successful practice."
For subscription information, testimonials from raving fans and demonstration modules, please access www.DocCom.org.