How we equip our academic detailers with the skills needed for successful visits

We thought it would be interesting to share a behind the scenes look at how the CEP equips our team of academic detailers with the skills to deliver individualized educational outreach visits to physicians. I will start by saying however, that many of the skills that our academic detailers embody are truly theirs, including great interpersonal skills, confidence, critical thinking, empathy, solid knowledge of pharmacotherapy and most importantly the ability to listen. For the skills that are obtained through training, I have described our approach below.

Before we launch each new visit topic, our academic detailers undergo a month of comprehensive training on the clinical evidence relevant to the new topic. This comprehensive training ensures our detailers have in-depth understanding of the latest clinical practice guidelines and prominent studies related to each topic, so they can pass the key points onto physicians. Detailers are also trained in critical appraisal to ensure they are delivering the highest quality, balanced information to participating physicians during each visit and when answering their clinical questions.

Another component of training focuses on equipping each detailer with the ability to assess and understand providers’ personal needs, motivations for practice and ways to overcome barriers to change. These skills enable our detailers to tailor the delivery of each educational visit to the needs of the physician and ensure they get what they need out of the visit.

If you are interested in learning more about our academic detailers or signing-up for a visit, please visit the academic detailing page.

Note: I could not write this blog without acknowledging the essential role our Clinical Service Director Loren Regier has played in preparing for and leading the training of our detailers, so thank you Loren. Also a big thank you to the experienced facilitators from the Canadian Academic Detailing Collaboration (CADC), for their willingness to cross time zones to help us out with our training whenever we ask.