SBUMC Surgeons offer free innovative CME's for Community Physicians

CME “Saturdays” Run January Through June 2010

STONY BROOK, N.Y., January 4, 2010 – Faculty from Stony Brook University Medical Center’s  Department of Surgery are running a new program offering community physicians and surgeons free continuing medical education (CME) opportunities. Called CME Saturday Surgical Seminars, the lecture series runs through much of 2010 and features focused updates by surgical faculty representing specialty fields such as vascular, colorectal, and general oncologic surgery.

CME Saturdays are held the second Saturday of each month. Each session brings area physicians together to share their knowledge and learn about new techniques and procedures, with emphasis on what referring physicians need to know about the latest advances in surgery.

One dynamic hands-on session took place on December 12, 2009, at SBUMC’s Clinical Skills Center. This CME provided community pediatricians training in “Office Procedures for Pediatricians: Do’s, Don’ts, and Hands-On Simulation Experience.”

SBUMC pediatric surgeons Drs. Thomas Lee and Richard Scriven first provided the group with a rundown on ways to effectively treat lacerations and burns, distinguishing the most serious injuries that require surgical intervention from those that can be cared for effectively in the physician’s office. The hands-on portion of the training featured practice on completing sutures, learning how to manipulate a laparoscope for surgery, as well as techniques for central line placement and intubation on simulated patient mannequins.

Fatema Meah, M.D., of Peconic Pediatrics expressed what most of the 20 or so pediatricians experienced during the two-hour CME: “The training is great practice but also gives us as pediatricians more insight to the most serious cases and procedures that are usually done outside our offices, such as laparoscopic surgery.”

Kerry Moore, M.D., and her colleagues from Kids First Pediatrics, PC, based in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., found the training to be helpful from a re-learning aspect, as wound care and burn management have changed over the years, and learning new techniques, mainly suturing and inserting a central line.

The scheduled CME Saturdays for 2010 are: Vascular Surgery (January 9), Colon and Rectal Surgery (February 13), Breast Surgery (March 13), Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (April 10), Upper Gastrointestinal and General Oncologic Surgery (May 8), and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (June 12).

Caption:
During one of Stony Brook University Medical Center’s Saturday Surgical Seminars, Rafael Malgor, M.D., a vascular surgeon, demonstrates to community physicians how to insert a central line on a simulated patient mannequin.

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