515-P: Harnessing Simulation-Based Corrective Mentoring in Continuing Medical Education to Improve Clinical Decision Making and Identify Persisting Educational Needs

Rationale: Due to the vast number of treatment options and clinical presentations of patients with T2DM, providers are challenged to individualize treatment. Incorporating corrective mentoring into decision-based continuing medical education (CME) is a proven method to improve clinical decision-making while simultaneously elucidating persisting educational needs.

Methods: Vindico Medical Education and Syandus partnered to develop four virtual clinical scenarios designed to encourage optimal decision making for patients with T2DM by providing immediate feedback via simulated corrective mentoring.

Results: A total of 765 primary care providers (PCPs) and 103 endocrinology providers participated in the simulation. Across all four simulations, only 15% of decisions were optimal on the first selection. At baseline, the most challenging topics were evaluating comorbidities and optimizing the use of SGLT-2 inhibitors (13% and 3% optimal decisions made, respectively) . However, after corrective mentoring, there was a 400% relative increase in optimal decisions made. Relative to PCPs, endocrinology providers were 11% more likely to eliminate non-ideal treatment options for a patient with T2DM, obesity, and ASCVD. Similarly, endocrinologists were 14% more competent than PCPs regarding the use of an SGLT-2 inhibitor for a patient with T2DM and worsening kidney disease. The reason for these findings may be that, relative to endocrinologists, PCPs are nearly twice as concerned with optimizing A1C control versus managing comorbidities such as kidney disease or obesity.

Conclusion: The use of corrective mentoring in simulation-based CME is an impactful way to encourage clinical decision-making in alignment with the latest evidence-based care. Moreover, these data highlight the need to educate PCPs on the importance of considering comorbidities when individualizing treatment for patients with T2DM.