R.J. Fasenmyer Center Helping Educate an International Audience

By Leonard Calabrese, DO

The R.J. Fasenmyer Center for Clinical Immunology at Cleveland Clinic has taken its educational expertise abroad to an unparalleled degree in the past year through two new international initiatives:

• A bilingual website operated in conjunction with the leading academic medical center in Beijing, China
• The launch of a series of live educational activities developed for groups of rheumatologists from outside the U.S.

Building on Domestic Education Leadership

Since its inception in 2005, the R.J. Fasenmyer Center has swiftly established itself as a premier center of clinical research, community service and educational programming.

CME has been a substantial component of that mission, as evidenced by the wealth of rheumatology/immunology-related CME activities offered by the center, including:

• The popular biennial Biologic Therapies Summit, whose sixth iteration will be held April 30 to May 2, 2015. This summit has grown from a local meeting at its first offering in 2005 to an event drawing more than 400 attendees in 2013 ‒ more than 2 percent of whom were international attendees, coming from multiple nations. The mounting success of this summit has been a leading driver of our expansion into international educational initiatives.
• Many other live courses offered in Cleveland and other cities across the U.S.
• More than 100 CME activities available on Cleveland Clinic’s CME website (ccfcme.org) at any given time. These online activities include webcasts, podcasts, interactive and online monographs, and online newsletters that reach thousands of participants from around the world. This reach has made ccfcme.org the world’s leading nonprofit website for rheumatology CME and made the R.J. Fasenmyer Center the leading source of CME at Cleveland Clinic.

Shaping an Online Education Model for China

The growing international interest in the Biologic Therapies Summit and our online CME activities prompted the R.J. Fasenmyer Center’s two new international initiatives, the first of which was the creation of the bilingual (Mandarin and English) website in conjunction with Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Since its founding in 1921 (the same year Cleveland Clinic was established), this hospital has developed into Beijing’s leading academic medical center.

Our shared website ‒ http://pumch.clevelandclinicmeded.com ‒ is a unique collaboration that brings together two world leaders in healthcare. The initial educational offerings are in rheumatology and hepatology and include:

• Online practice-based-learning modules
• Selections from The Disease Management Project, an online medical reference designed to provide treatment guidelines for common diseases and conditions
• Webcasts in rheumatology and hepatology by international leaders in these fields

Over time, we hope to expand the content scope to all medical specialties and to establish this portal as a model for online medical education throughout China. Thousands of Chinese healthcare professionals have already begun to use the site, and we expect continued swift growth over the next several years.

The program is coordinated by Cleveland Clinic rheumatologist Qingping Yao, MD, PhD, who was born and trained in China.

Taking Intensive Group Courses to the Southern Hemisphere

Our second international initiative involves presenting live educational activities to groups of rheumatologists from outside the U.S. Our first such event, held at the R.J. Fasenmyer Center on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in July 2014, was tailored to a group of about 40 rheumatologists from Mexico. They spent two days in intensive CME activity that focused on rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthropathy.

This event was highly successful, and we plan to expand our educational connections with rheumatologists throughout the Southern Hemisphere.

On the Horizon: The Middle East

About 32 percent of the viewers of online CME activities from the R.J. Fasenmyer Center are from outside the U.S. The leading area from which international online visitors come is the Middle East, likely due to the reputation Cleveland Clinic has built there through its facilities in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. As the R.J. Fasenmyer Center moves forward with its international education expansion, we are considering how best to educate and interact with more physicians in that part of the world.

Photo of key players at the Cleveland Clinic/Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) consortium signing ceremony. Standing (left to right): Abby Abelson, MD, Chair, Cleveland Clinic Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases; Qingping Yao, MD, PhD, a Cleveland Clinic rheumatologist; William Carey, MD, Director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Continuing Education; James Stoller, MD, Chair, Cleveland Clinic Education Institute; Cleveland Clinic gastroenterologist Bo Shen, MD; and Cleveland Clinic rheumatologist M. Elaine Husni, MD, MPH. Sitting (left to right): PUMCH physician Xuan Zhang, MD; Feng-Chun Zhang, MD, Chair, Department of Medicine, PUMCH; and Leonard Calabrese, DO, Director, R.J. Fasenmyer Center for Clinical Immunology.

Upcoming Event

Biologic Therapies Summit VI: Optimizing Therapy

Plus Presymposium on Vasculitis of the CNS

The latest offering of the R.J. Fasenmyer Center’s popular Biologic Therapies Summit (including the 24th Annual Cleveland Review of Rheumatic Diseases) will be held April 30 to May 2, 2015, at the InterContinental Hotel and Bank of America Conference Center in Cleveland.

Faculty from diverse disciplines will address the newest data on biologics and apply them to clinical practice. Many interactive learning activities will be available. Biologic Therapies Summit VI kicks off with a plenary session on translational immunology. Sessions will provide analyses of advances in treat-to-target therapy, optimizing therapy for connective tissue diseases, safe use of vaccines with biologics, and more. Advances in the co-management of comorbidities and systemic rheumatic diseases also will be covered. New this year is a “Biologics Crossfire” session providing critical insight into shared challenges for multiple disciplines (in addition to rheumatology) that use biologic therapies, including dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology, oncology and others.

The summit will be preceded at the same venue by a one-day symposium, “Vasculitis of the CNS: Diagnosis, Management and Research,” on April 29.

Both events are certified for CME credit.

For more information, visit ccfcme.org/attendBioVI.

For all CME activities currently offered by the R.J. Fasenmyer Center and the Cleveland Clinic Center for Continuing Education, visit ccfcme.org/rheumatology.