CMEpalooza Fall 2025 Wrapup

It was another banner day for CMEpalooza yesterday, with nearly 1,200 CME professionals joining us for our free smorgasbord of education and entertainment. If you missed any of the sessions, or perhaps if you want to go back and rewatch something particularly riveting, links to all of the sessions can be found on our Fall agenda page. The actual CMEpalooza session archives will be updated whenever Derek gets around to it (be patient, folks).

A few more tidbits before our private jet taxies off to Bali for a much-needed rest:

Thanks to all 194 of you who “scavenged” long and hard to find the “hidden” CMEpalooza right smack in the middle of the homepage of the sponsor for the CMEpalooza Scavenger Hunt, Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning (easiest scavenger hunt ever!). We held our drawing for the ten winners of $50 Amazon gift cards this morning. Here are your victors:

1. Asa Renfroe — Project Manager, CE Outcomes
2. Mia Vardano – Planner, Thomas Jefferson University
3. Melissa Ketchum – Senior Director, Accreditation and Compliance, PeerView Institute for Medical Education
4. Alejandra Hutchison – AdventHealth
5. Michael Parker – Education Events Coordinator, Nemours Children’s Health
6. Rhona Fraser – Freelance Medical Writer
7. Mindy Pollock Troy – Grand Rounds Specialist,  Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
8. Emily Gibson – Director, Medical Writing, Answers in CME
9. Melissa Hood – Professional Education Manager, National Kidney Foundation
10. Michelle Adams – MJAConsult

In case anyone in curious about the “secret celebrity crushes” of those in the CME world (this was the bonus question on our entry form), our top responses included George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Jason Statham, Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Hunnam, and Jason Momoa. Special shout out to the wise individual who tried to bribe the judges by responding, “Derek and Scott.” Our wives are tremendously jealous.

In addition to our Scavenger Hunt winners, we recently selected another batch of prize winners among the entrants in our STEPtacular Challenge (sponsored by Talem Health) that ended over the weekend. Here are the fittest among us:

Winners of the STEPtacular drawing: $50 Amazon gift card  (one entry for each daily screenshot showing over 10,000 steps)

1. Brittane Strahan
2. Christina Casanova Lider
3. Jessica Rice
4. Jill Hays
5. Sujita Adhikari
   

Winner of $250 Amazon gift card for most steps in one day
Joanne Wise wins for the first time with an incredible 61,029 steps. My feet hurt just thinking about that number of steps. Congrats Joanne!