Cleveland Clinic Continuing Medical Education Website Wins National Awards

CLEVELAND, Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleveland Clinic's Center for Continuing Education website, ccfcme.com, recently received awards from two respected health information organizations, Strategic Health Care Communications and Health Information Resource Center, for its content, credibility and ease of use. These distinctions bring prominence to a website that physicians have relied upon for world-class medical content for more than 10 years.

The website took top honors for "Best Overall Internet Site" and "Best Healthcare Content" in Strategic Health Care Communications' eHealthcare Leadership Awards and "Best Webcast/Audio" from the Health Information Resource Center's 2010 Web Health Awards.

"Cleveland Clinic's Continuing Medical Education website is a central resource that allows us the ability to reach out to our colleagues around the world," said James K. Stoller, M.D., M.S., Chair of Cleveland Clinic's Education Institute. "As an organization committed to delivering the highest quality healthcare and educating the next generation of physician scientists, we are thrilled to see our resources utilized and hope they provide physicians with the opportunity to stay abreast of the latest developments in medicine."

Launched in 2000 and featuring a virtual textbook of medicine, ccfcme.com has attracted millions of visitors and has become one of the largest providers among the nation's academic medical centers of online continuing medical education (CME) in the world. Cleveland Clinic issued more than 56,000 online CME certificates in 2009 and is on track to issue 75,000 certificates in 2010.

"These awards are particularly gratifying as we are celebrating 10 years of providing world-class medical education to physicians and other healthcare professionals from around the globe," says William Carey, M.D., a digestive disease physician and Director of Cleveland Clinic's Center for Continuing Medical Education. "By educating medical professionals, we're helping to ensure that patients receive the highest standard of medical care."

The website awards are based on many factors including delivery of strong health content. In a recent survey, 97.52 percent of users rated the quality of educational content on ccfcme.com as excellent or good. The website's overall online activities were rated excellent or good by 97.88 percent of users.

From 1,300 entries in the Physician/Clinician category, ccfcme.com was recognized with the following top eHealthcare Leadership Awards from Strategic Health Care Communications:

• Best Overall Internet Site (Platinum)
• Best Healthcare Content (Platinum)

In the Hospital/Health Care Division of the 2010 Web Health Awards, organized by the Health Information Resource Center, ccfcme.com won the following awards:

• Webcast/Audio (Gold)
• Website (Silver)
• Interactive content (Silver)
• Webcast/Video (Bronze)

About the Education Institute

Cleveland Clinic's Education Institute offers world-class training to physicians, nurses, medical students, residents and fellows, allied health professionals and outside healthcare executives as well as community education. The institute comprises 16 departments including Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, the Center for Consumer Health Information and one of the nation's largest graduate medical education programs. Education has been an essential part of Cleveland Clinic's mission since its founding in 1921. Guided by a solid tradition of "educating those who serve," the Education Institute continues to champion clinical training with the goal of delivering the highest quality healthcare possible to patients.

About Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. It was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation's best hospitals in its annual "America's Best Hospitals" survey. About 2,100 full-time salaried physicians and researchers and 11,000 nurses represent 120 medical specialties and subspecialties. In addition to its main campus, Cleveland Clinic operates nine regional hospitals and 15 Family Health Centers in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Clinic Florida, the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Cleveland Clinic Canada, and opening in 2012, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. In 2009, there were more than 4.6 million visits throughout the Cleveland Clinic health system and 170,000 hospital admissions. Patients came for treatment from every state and from more than 100 countries. Visit us at www.clevelandclinic.org.

SOURCE Cleveland Clinic