Have We Made Progress? Interprofessional Diversity Within Faculty and Course Directors of Continuous Professional Development Courses Pre- and Post-Joint Accreditation

Becky Ness,1,&ast; Justine Herndon,2,&ast; Chelsey Hoffmann,3,&ast; Susan Benysh,4 Carrie Bowler,4 Winston Tan5 1Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic Health System Southwest Minnesota, Mankato, MN, USA; 2Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; 3Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; 4Mayo Clinic School of Continuous Professional Development, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA; 5Department of Hematology and Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Becky Ness, Department of Nephrology and Hypertension Mayo Clinic Health System Southwest Minnesota, 1025 Marsh Street, Mankato, MN, 56001, USA, Email [email protected]: This study aimed to quantify the impact of joint accreditation on the prevalence of physician and non-physician continuous professional development (CPD) course directors(CDs) and faculty.Methods: CPD CDs and faculty credentials were collected in 2017 (one-year pre-joint accreditation) and 2022 (one-year post-joint accreditation), using electronic and manual data extraction. CPD CDs and faculty were grouped into physician and non-physician cohorts for the quantitative analysis.Results: A significant increase in the number of non-physician CDs was observed from 2017 (11.3%) to 2022 (22.5%). There were significantly more non-physician faculty at non-physician-focused courses (8.7 ± 8.1 faculty compared to 2.6 ± 4.1 at physician-focused conferences, p = 0.003) with a large effect size, Cohen’s d = − 1.32 [95% CI − 1.8, − 0.9]. Finally, while physicians had statistically higher faculty scores for all three measurements (p < 0.001), the effect sizes were small (Cohen’s d ranging 0.18– 0.20).Conclusion: Increased diversity in CDs and faculty was noted when comparing pre- and post-joint accreditation suggesting compliance with joint accreditation standards and the growing emphasis on team-based healthcare. Future research is needed to investigate barriers to CPD participation as CDs and faculty for both physician and non-physician healthcare team members. Additional research will continue to help expand diverse professional representation among CDs and faculty within CPD courses.Keywords: continuing medical education, professional development, leadership, faculty, professional education