Dannemiller Awarded Accreditation with Commendation

(SAN ANTONIO, TX) July 21, 2009 – Dannemiller, a leader in providing innovative educational resources for a wide range of medical specialties, has been awarded accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Dannemiller also holds accreditation with commendation from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and is an accredited provider through the California Board of Registered Nurses (CBRN). ACCME accreditation with commendation places Dannemiller in the top 8% of accredited providers.

“Our main priority has always been to develop the highest-quality continuing medical education – education doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can learn from and implement into their patient care practices,” says Dannemiller President Scott Bonnallie. “Accreditation from these highly-respected organizations is essential in this process, as well as assures our healthcare community we follow the most stringent guidelines in regards to education.”

Charged early last year to lead Dannemiller, Bonnallie immediately began focusing on expanding the company’s educational offerings. “Like many educational companies, for years Dannemiller relied on pharmaceutical grant money to develop education,” he explains. “But we saw the writing on the wall – and knew this type of funding would eventually decrease.”

Stricter ACCME guidelines combined with legislation enacting laws ending pharmaceutical educational funding sent many companies into a panic, Bonnallie says. However, he stresses, “We knew the quality of our education never depended on pharmaceutical funding.” Instead, he says, “Dannemiller focused on creating additional products and educational content, leading to additional revenue streams.”

Director of Continuing Medical Education Robyn Brown agrees with Bonnallie. “We have a stellar educational development and content group consisting of well-known and respected medical professionals and educators,” she says. “I like to think we aren’t just following these new laws and guidelines, but setting our own standard of excellence in delivering continuing education – and considering our recent accreditations, I believe we are doing just that.”

Bonnallie says he’s pleased at how Dannemiller is adjusting to the changing continuing education industry, and is confident stricter regulations will not hinder its mission, but instead, enhance and strengthen it. However, he hopes lawmakers realize the importance of providing this type of education to medical professionals, regardless of who provides the funding.

“What legislative and other law-making bodies need to realize is that there is a strong need for continuing medical education,” he says. “Politicians, patients, the general public – they all need to be keenly aware of how important this type of education is.”

AnesthesiaFile® Goes Digital - Wednesday, December 10, 2008

In a continuing effort to better provide up-to-date continuing education to its healthcare audience, the Dannemiller Foundation is pleased to announce that its highly acclaimed monthly abstract notebook AnesthesiaFile® is now available online in Portable Document Format (PDF).

AnesthesiaFile® is a subscription-based CME activity that contains 30 expertly written abstracted articles by anesthesia thought-leaders from many of the world’s most important and prestigious medical journals. "For years, anesthesiologists, CRNAs, and other healthcare professionals have benefited from these monthly articles that highlight the newest information about their specialty," said Executive Director Scott Bonnallie. "By providing these modules in an easy-to-download format, we’re helping busy professionals read these articles wherever they may be without the hassle of carrying around a bunch of paper," he continued.

The Dannemiller Foundation also believes that by providing a download option for these monthly articles it is doing its part in reducing any environmental impact printing thousands of sheets of paper causes. This isn’t the first time the Dannemiller Foundation has sought better ways of distributing its plethora of learning activities to healthcare professionals. At its Intensive Review of the Specialty of Pain Medicine: Pain Board Oriented Review Course in July 2008, attendees received a USB flash drive with the conference’s entire course syllabus. "Considering that the syllabus is about 500 pages long, the flash drives were a huge hit with our audience. Since then, we’ve provided pain board questions in the same format and are continuing to find other unique ways to deliver content to professionals when they need it and how they want it," explained Bonnallie.

Additionally, the Dannemiller Foundation offers continuing education through its specialty-based websites www.pain.com and www.anesthesiologyonline.com. "As new technologies become available and as our healthcare professionals share an interest in receiving CME in new ways, the Dannemiller Foundation will continue to provide excellent education in the most expedient and efficient manner while being conscious of our social responsibility to the environment," said Bonnallie.

Nurse Anesthetists Convene in San Antonio - Friday, December 5, 2008

The Riverwalk was the destination for more than 150 nurse anesthetists the first week of December. It was the Annual Fall Nurse Anesthetist Review, Update, and Regional Anesthesia Hands-on Workshop, which has been organized by the Dannemiller Foundation for 30 years now. This is the only course that allows for the opportunity to earn 40 continuing education credits upon completion of the entire program, plus an additional eight pharmacology credits.

The meeting provides nurse anesthetists the chance to hear from an array of experts who present on such topics like current clinical challenges, regional techniques, legal and professional issues, as well as pediatric and obstetric anesthesia. Next year’s event will be from November 30 – December 5, 2009, in San Antonio, Texas. Click here to see a complete listing of upcoming meetings hosted by the Dannemiller Foundation.

New Advisory Board Members Join Pain.com - Monday, December 1, 2008

We’re pleased to announce that four exceptional physicians have agreed to serve on the Pain.com Advisory Board during 2009. Among them, we have a pediatric pain specialist, an interventional pain physician, a physical medicine and rehabilitation pain management specialist, and an anesthesiologist and pain medicine physician. Click here to meet our Advisory Board members.

Dannemiller Foundation Launches CEvillage - Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Dannemiller Foundation is proud to announce its newest educational portal, CEvillage.com. CEvillage offers a variety of certified activities to keep healthcare professionals on the cutting edge of their fields while earning valuable CE credit. New educational programs are added constantly, and registration is free. Currently, there is a series on treating COPD posted on the site, as well as a webcast aimed at oncology nurses. We’re excited about this new opportunity to bring quality education to healthcare professionals and encourage you to spread the news to your colleagues! Click here to visit ceVillage.com.

Dannemiller Goes "Green" - Saturday, August 23, 2008

Dannemiller is committed to promoting a clean sustainable environment. It is our responsibility as global citizens to reuse, reduce, and recycle. As a result, course content for our meetings will be made available on a USB drive, rather than printed speaker slides - thereby reducing our paper usage by over 200,000 pages per meeting. Environmental consideration has always been in Dannemiller's business practice, and we will continue looking for more ways to offer the same great content while reducing the environmental impact.

Staying Ahead of the Pack - Friday, December 1, 2006

The Dannemiller Memorial Educational Foundation was awarded Accreditation with Commendation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) on December 1, 2006. This is the highest level of accreditation that the ACCME can award and carries a full 6-year accreditation period for the Dannemiller Foundation. The ACCME awarded the Dannemiller Foundation exemplary compliance ratings for our Mission Statement, our Needs Assessments, our Activity Evaluations and our Organizational Framework. The Dannemiller Foundation's proprietary Outcomes Study process and our independent Clinical Content Review were specifically cited as innovative, successful and exemplary in the ACCME survey report. This award places the Dannemiller Foundation as one of only 8% of all providers who achieve this level of accreditation.