Back in 2004, there was an iconic episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show where she gifted everyone in the audience a brand new car. Let’s ignore that this was a promotional stunt whose cost was covered in full by the car manufacturer (Pontiac, which was phased out as a car brand 6 years later, so um, maybe not the lifesaving investment they had hoped for). We’ll also disregard that this didn’t personally cost Oprah herself a cent. We’ll even overlook the fact that each “winning” audience member was on the hook for a tax bill of around $7,000. It was still a rather generous and exciting moment in television history.

I bring this up today only because ’tis the season for CMEpalooza giveaways, and we promise that these won’t cost you a dime. Over the last several years, Derek and I have found a number of ways to share our meager wealth with the CMEpalooza audience through a variety of mechanisms. We try to be creative – there is our special sponsor event, some sort of trivia or other session during our actual live broadcast day, and a few other things sprinkled about. This year, however, we are going to be even more generous than usual, and it probably behooves those of you who like to win free money to be on the lookout for these upcoming opportunities:

1. Our special sponsor event will kick off next Monday (March 14). I haven’t thought of a theme yet, but I can promise you that it won’t have anything to do with Wordle, or Quordle, or Nerdle, or Poeltl (note from Derek: you forgot Worldle and Heardle.) This is probably also a good reminder for any potential sponsor who is on the fence about their participation this year to get in on the action soon. Many, many thousands of CME professionals participate in our Sponsor event each year, bringing many, many thousands of sets of eyeballs to all of our amazing Sponsors. If you get in your commitment by this Friday, you’ll get included in this Spring’s sponsor event. Total Prize Fund: $500
2. The CMEpalooza Feud — I’m not 100% sure how this is going to work (note from Derek: way to sell it, Scott), but for now, I’m thinking that everyone who successfully completes our special sponsor event but does not win one of our Amazon gift card prizes will be thrown into the bucket to be one of our “at home” players during our session at 3 pm ET during CMEpalooza Spring. We’ll give away even more gift cards then. Total Prize Fund: $500
3. CMEpalooza Feeds the People — We initially trotted this out in the Fall of 2020, and thanks to the generous folks at Academic CME, it’s back again this Spring (let’s hope that Academic CME doesn’t go the way of Pontiac). We’ll put a call for “applicants” later this month – really, you’ll just need to send Derek an email with a photo of what you ate for dinner last week and you’ll be entered into the drawing for a $15 Grubhub gift card to cover the cost of lunch during CMEpalooza Spring. We’re giving away lots of these (“You Grubhub and you Grubhub and you Grubhub!”). More details to come. Total Prize Fund: $375

Every few years, just like every other industry, there is a new “hot trend” in the CME/CE world. You see this in conference abstracts, peer-reviewed publications, and the like. For instance, “microlearning” seems to be something that people are talking a lot about right now, although I admittedly am more confused now than I was 3 months ago about what constitutes “microlearning” (hint: it’s apparently not just a short, 15-minute activity on any random combination of topics).

Another big recent industry buzzword (or buzzwords) is the “patient voice” in CME/CE. This is not necessarily new, but it’s something gaining more and more traction in our education. Many of us, and perhaps even the majority of us by now, have experience with the recruitment and incorporation of patients into our education. These can be powerful additions to accredited education, but only if planned and implemented in the right manner.

How do you choose the patients to include in your education? Do you rely on faculty to send you possible names? Do you troll the Internet? Rely on partners? This is an area where I think there is a lot for us to reflect upon so that we can improve our practices.

To get some insight into this and related topics, I order you to join us (OK, “order” is a strong word – how about “strongly encourage”) at 11 am ET on Wednesday for a special CMEpalooza Spotlight sponsored by PlatformQ Health on the topic of Equity in Clinical Trials Is Within Reach: Patient Voices in Medical Education Matter.

I’ll be joined by an accomplished panel, including a MECC representative (Sapana Panday from PlatformQ Health), an advocacy partner (Jeanne Regnante from LUNGevity Foundation), and a recent patient participant in educational programs (Shawn Feliciano), to talk about the power of diversity in the patient voice. As with all CMEpalooza activities, it’s free to attend and there is no registration required. Just go to our LIVE page at 11 am ET — I order you! — to check it out.

While Derek was working on another of his infamous Top 10 lists (coming soon: Top 10 Wordle starters, Top 10 1930s radio shows, Top 10 foods that start with the letter Q), the rest of us at CMEpalooza HQ have been diligently planning actual education for our community. I know, what a concept.

We should have at least an initial draft of our CMEpalooza Spring agenda ready in the next few days — and thank you to everyone who submitted an abstract for consideration — but in the meantime, we have a special announcement.

At 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, February 23, we will be hosting our first of (hopefully) several CMEpalooza Spotlights in 2022. This one is being sponsored by the fine folks at PlatformQ Health and will focus on the topic of “Equity in Clinical Trials Is Within Reach: Patient Voices in Medical Education Matter.”

Separately, both diversity and the patient voice are hot topics in CME, so it kinda only makes sense to mush them together into an educational session (anyone else have the “Who put their chocolate in my peanut butter commercial?” playing in their head right now? No? Hmm, moving on…).

In this 30-minute session, we’ll mix together peanut butter and chocolate… er, I mean, diversity and the patient voice… and explore how providers can not just include patients in their education, but the right patients from the right backgrounds. We’ll not only get the perspective of the provider, but also a representative from a patient advocacy group, a patient who has participated in CME programming, and other folks.

As with all CMEpalooza sessions, this is free for anyone to attend. You’ll just need to go to our LIVE page at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, February 23 to watch. We’ll see you there.