Featured BOC Approved Provider: Emory Sports Medicine Center
The BOC regularly features BOC Approved Providers for notable efforts to enhance its continuing education programs for Athletic Trainers (ATs). Featured organizations follow the guidelines set forth by the BOC. Neeru Jayanthi, MD and Alena Naff MS, LAT, ATC for the Emory Sports Medicine Center share their organization’s experiences.
Why does your organization choose to participate in the BOC Approved Provider Program?
Emory Sports Medicine Center’s mission is to provide educational opportunities for all learners through our many training programs, annual Emory Sports Medicine Conferences (now at its 18th year), and specifically on giving our AT quality continuing education opportunities. As a BOC Approved Provider, we not only are giving our own staff high-quality and top-of-the-line educational opportunities, but we are also able to reach a broader audience, allowing more ATs to have access to our content. The program also allows us to make sure we are up to date with current BOC standards and comply with the industry standards! Additionally, being a part of the BOC Approved Provider Program allows us to expand our opportunities for collaboration. It also allows us to open doors for future partnerships with other providers and professionals.
How have the BOC standards and guidelines for BOC Approved Providers impacted your program development and administrative processes to offer continuing education programs for ATs?
The BOC standards and BOC Approved Provider guidelines have impacted the way our program has developed continuing education (CE) opportunities for ATs by allowing Emory Sports Medicine to maintain a high-quality, relevant, and effectively managed program that can deliver evidence-based content and adheres to the current best practices in the profession. These standards have also allowed our instructors to maintain a high standard of practice. They heavily impact our administrative processes by necessitating detailed record-keeping, reporting and evaluation procedures to ensure that all aspects of our program meet BOC requirements.
How do you design your curriculum to help participants improve outcomes in the patients they serve?
At Emory Sports Medicine, we research and develop the standard of care for many conditions and prevention strategies in sports medicine. When we educate, we focus on providing evidence-based discussions based on the current practice standards. We focus on giving this curriculum virtually, so more ATs have access to our content. We have multidisciplinary meetings with ATs, physical therapists, sports medicine physicians, sports medicine surgeons and sports medicine researchers. We invite external submissions for cases or research and provide breakout sessions in addition to our large plenary sessions, all geared towards giving the ATs (our primary audience) the best educational experience.
Our primary goal is focusing on our content being relevant to all ATs, we do this by giving several perspectives on various conditions. We focus on on-field management, rehabilitation, surgical interventions, medical sports medicine and non-operative interventions. Typically, an expert moderator is used for the opportunity for all areas of discussion to be covered. By using this model, our participants are able to improve their patients’ experience and outcomes.
What advice do you have for organizations looking to be on the cutting edge and maintain compliance, as they develop education programs?
For organizations who are looking to develop education programs, I heavily advise using the BOC Approved Provider Program. The ease of submitting programs and ability to manage it all on one platform helps tremendously. Additionally, it is super convenient to make sure you’re maintaining compliance, ensuring that the continuing education units (CEUs) you are offering are credentialed properly. We recommend becoming a member of this program; the ability to grow your own professional network and reach several varying groups of ATs is amazing.
Being able to market your organization as a BOC Approved Provider is a game changer when it comes to recruiting for events. It ensures your program has the high quality and effective backing of the BOC. We have been a BOC Approved Provider for 19 years and have always had a positive experience.
