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| Initiative Rationale |
| Depression affects more than 19 million American adults and more than 3 million children. The approaches to managing depression are improving and demonstrating enhanced outcomes, but many patients still do not have access to the best possible care. In fact, too many continue to receive suboptimal care, and in more cases than is acceptable, these patients are members of ethnic or racial minorities. To address this complex, multifaceted issue, the approach of INITIATIVE FOR DECREASING DISPARITIES IN DEPRESSION (I3D) will focus on physician education and the contextual factors that affect its delivery and the learning of physicians who participate in it. |
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| Linking Education With Outcomes |
| Government reports suggest that educating providers on culturally effective care, using methods that have a proven impact, could lead to changes in practice that, over time, will improve the health status of ethnic and racial minority patients. However, research has shown that education alone is not producing expected outcomes. I3D project staff believe that the lack of CME success in this and other areas is due largely to flawed instructional design and failure to consider contextual factors. Consequently, the primary goal of the June meeting in Nashville is to answer the question: Would an approach to designing learning activities for physicians that includes educational methods known to improve physician performance, combined with other measures known to improve physician performance, lead to clinical practices that equalize the quality of care? |
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