Education Institute

The Education Institute oversees Cleveland Clinic’s educational mission, including the Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, community education and one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs. The volume and diversity of clinical problems seen by trainees at Cleveland Clinic and the opportunity to participate in a group practice model of medical care provide an ideal teaching and learning environment.

In 2008, the Education Institute sponsored 803 residents and fellows and 128 advanced fellows. These numbers represent the highest graduate medical education enrollment in Cleveland Clinic history and demonstrates an upward trend that reflects Cleveland Clinic’s steady growth and specialization. These trainees participate in the Education Institute’s 59 ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education)-certified programs and more than 70 non-accredited fellowships.

Physicians and other medical personnel around the world are required to keep their knowledge and skills up to date through participation in Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs. The Education Institute is a leading provider of CME courses in virtually all media. In 2008, the Education Institute offered 493 CME programs to 86,363 participants from around the world. These programs ranged from 206 live courses to 151 online CME activities. Of live program attendees, 39 percent were from outside the Midwest, and 13 percent were from outside the United States. CME programs also were offered internationally at several sites, including Abu Dhabi, reflecting an increasing educational outreach to the international medical community in countries where Cleveland Clinic is establishing a medical presence.

The Education Institute offers patient education and health information for the public through its Center for Consumer Health Information. In 2008, the Center provided 47 community Health Talks to 2,944 attendees. Users of the Center’s Online Health Information Database continue to increase, with 18 million page views in 2008, up from 100,000 in 2001. Podcasts, webcasts and live web chats also are offered as a means of consumer health information outreach.

The Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine (CCJM) enjoyed a circulation of 101,044 in 2008, and continued to rank second in readership among journals directed to office-based internists and cardiologists.

The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University has seen the number of applicants more than double over the past four years, to almost 1,500 applicants for 32 positions in 2008. The program’s students contributed 25 scientific articles and 25 presentations to the world’s store of scientific knowledge in 2008. In the first graduating class, 29 out of 29 graduates successfully matched at some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country.

This year, five Lerner College of Medicine students received the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program award, also known as the “Cloisters.” The award gives outstanding students at U.S. medical schools the opportunity to receive research training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

A sixth student received an HHMI Medical Student Research Fellowship that will support one year of research at Cleveland Clinic. In addition, three students received Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship awards, which are designed to support medical student research at selected academic medical centers, and one student received a National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Training Program award.