Funding
Clinical Encounters: Vaping was developed by Clinical Tools, Inc (CTI) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA grant No. R43DA050401). We gratefully acknowledge this support, which was the sole funding source for the development of this project.
No Industry Support
All materials on this website were developed in an industry-fund-free environment. No industry funding was used to create this website or these educational activities.
Purpose
Vaping and e-cigarette use, especially among today’s youth, threaten to bring back the scourge of addiction to nicotine and introduce a novel indiscreet means to use cannabis. From 2017 to 2018, rates of e-cigarette use by high school students almost doubled to 1 in 5, and in middle school students, the rate increased to 1 in 20. Over 1 in 5 high school seniors reported past-year use of a vaping device in 2018 and almost 1 in 7 vape cannabis. Over 1/3 of young adults have used e-cigarettes, placing them at risk for a lifetime of addiction to nicotine. Yet health care providers lack the skills, training, and resources to reverse these trends.
Development
The content for Clinical Encounters: Vaping was developed based on a review of the relevant literature and review by experts in substance use disorders and clinical practice. Resources needed to support these clinical skills are also provided within the module.
Our vision for continuing health professional development (CHPD) is to provide unbiased clinical training that improves competency and has an actual impact. Through the use of case vignettes, health professionals are trained and guided to use the training to take action in their practice toward changes and improvement that lead to improved patient outcomes. Our CHPD activities are built upon a coherent model emphasizing a practice gap related to knowledge, competence, performance, or anticipated patient outcomes. Skills training is emphasized over knowledge, although knowledge is provided where it is needed to support training to address documented practice gaps.
Continuing Education Mission Statement
Clinical Tools, Inc. combines medicine, science, and technology to provide state-of-the-art online and training and education to improve patient care.
We strive to enhance the knowledge, skills, and practice of health care providers and trainees so they can improve patient health. Our standard incorporates the most up-to-date research and expert opinion. The company identifies content areas that are under-represented in current CME curricula, are skills-oriented and would benefit from internet delivery – including innovative uses of emerging technology.
Activity content is determined by analysis of gaps in performance, knowledge and competence, and patient outcomes, including national guidelines, best practices reports, user surveys, literature review, and consultations with experts. Our focus is on creating clinical skills-based training activities and evaluating each activity using metrics that relate to the targeted skills. Successful activities will improve competence, performance, skills, use of best practices, and patient outcomes. The impact is evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods to assure quality and to measure competence, skills, and behaviors essential to providing quality patient care and improving outcomes.
Clinical Tools does not participate in the delivery of complete and finalized training experiences. Nor do we participate when decisions have already been made regarding the practice gaps, content, delivery, authorship, or the assessment of the intervention. We only provide Category I CME (TM) for an activity when we are closely involved in meeting all of the ACCME requirements, including the collection, storage, and analysis of data on the impact of the activity on competence, performance, or patient outcomes.
Impact
Through our training, the health professional will build key clinical skills related to vaping including the deployment of motivational interviewing and Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) skills. A patient-centered approach builds a strong collaborative relationship by emphasizing dialogue, patient relevance, tailoring an intervention to the patient’s needs, and the proper use of integrated resources and guides for parents, adolescents and young adults.
Accreditation
Clinical Tools, Inc. is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Clinical Tools, Inc. is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP solely is responsible for all aspects of the activity.
Dissemination
Clinical Tools, and its gaming division Health Impact Studio, strives to share knowledge gained through the testing and use of its products. You can see our latest conference presentations, as well as our published research articles, at the Health Impact Studio site.
Future Plans
We will continue expanding our Clinical Encounters: Vaping curriculum to include further topics regarding the increase in vaping use among youth and adolescents. We envision that our bundled activities will be sold as a training tool for medical provider groups / offices in order to provide consistent and up-to-date education on this topic. This source of revenue will support any ongoing work needed to refine the product and allow consistent group training for these providers.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the numerous individuals who participated in the project’s formative stage development, and to those who send us comments and feedback about the site.
