Outcomes
The ultimate goal of this Initiative is to improve patient care, specifically by improving skills and competencies, and changing practice performance of the individual health-system pharmacist in appropriate management of patients with chronic pain. In order to measure whether the intended change has been implemented, the outcomes methodology consists of several components:

1. Baseline practice of the individual learners and the unique challenges they face will be assessed through pre-activity surveys. Faculty will attempt to address these specific challenges during the live activity.
2. Formative assessment techniques will be utilized during the live activity. The faculty will also have an opportunity to specifically address the knowledge gaps identified by the learners prior to the meeting and provide guidance on how to overcome these challenges. Learners will have ample opportunity to ask additional questions during the Q&A portion of the program.
3. Post-Activity Evaluation will be designed to measure the overall effectiveness of the educational activity. Learners will be also asked to state the barriers to optimal assessment and management of pain that still exist in the hospital setting and how these barriers might be overcome.
4. Participation in the Pain Management Point of Care CE program will encourage pharmacists to investigate questions relevant to the assessment and management of pain. Through their own investigation, learners will gain competence by consulting credible sources and summarizing conclusions reached through their research efforts. Learners will also document how they will incorporate the knowledge they learned into their clinical practice. This approach allows learners to identify their own educational needs and provides tools and resources necessary to address those needs and improve practice performance.
5. Online tutorial Pain Management Tools will be regularly posted on the web portal. In this manner, learners who participated in the live activity will have an opportunity to reinforce the knowledge gained and apply this knowledge in the clinical setting for the management of pain.
6. Once learners have reviewed all Tools, they will have the opportunity to participate in a Virtual Case exercise. The cases will be designed to encourage learners to apply knowledge related to each of the Tools and provide valid and thoughtful responses at key stages of patient management.
7. Upon completion of the Virtual Case exercise, learners will be requested to complete an Overall
   Post-Activity Survey and Evaluation Form focusing on the specific ways in which they have changed their practice performance based on each Pain Management Tool.

As an active partner of both the learners and CME providers, we recognize that continuing education can impact the healthcare environment only through collaboration, cooperation, and communication among its various stakeholders. Therefore, Outcomes Reports from this Initiative will be shared with:

• All learners: This will provide the individual learners an opportunity to see comments from fellow learners.
• Faculty: This will assist the faculty in tailoring their teaching approach on specific difficult issues and in understanding the challenges the learners continue to face to improve their practice performance.
• CME/CE provider: This will enhance the understanding of CME providers regarding the effectiveness of educational formats and approaches.
• All healthcare practitioners

Providing extensive Outcomes Assessment from this Initiative is in keeping with our commitment to innovative approaches that contribute to a better understanding of the healthcare environment and, thus, offers solutions for addressing quality improvement. This analysis will be publically available via web-postings on the UK HealthCare CECentral and Vemco MedEd websites.