Advancing health equity: The role of CME and training

In an interview with Medical Economics at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting 2025 in New Orleans, Earl Stewart Jr., MD, FACP, discussed the role of continuing medical education (CME) in cultural competency and bias reduction — and why it's essential for physicians at every stage of their careers.

“We want to make sure that our more senior physicians who are still seeing patients, who are still grappling with the marvelous blessing and burden that is the profession of medicine … understand that, you know, even though you may have been practicing 35, 40 years, you still need to know what it means to be culturally competent,” Stewart said.

He emphasized that training should go beyond clinical expertise to include sensitivity to identity, orientation, and documentation. “It matters that we continue education on these issues,” he said, pointing out that discomfort — rather than lack of skill — often drives disparities in treatment decisions. “Not necessarily not having the expertise, but just not being comfortable doing it just because of personal creeds.”

Stewart called it a “quality issue,” noting that education must keep pace with both regulatory standards and evolving expectations in patient care. “We still have to incorporate these tenets into how we approach and how we treat our patients,” he said. “Because when patients feel more comfortable, and they feel like they belong … that helps make what we call shared decision-making all that more facile.”