Whetting Your Appetite for CMEpalooza Fall

We’re closing in on the start of CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. ET – that’s tomorrow people!), so to help whet your appetite, here are a few session-specific items for you to read through as you prepare to watch:

Common/Not-So-Common Case Conundrums in CME — Our kickoff session sponsored by Global Academy for Medical Education will focus on two complex case studies, one to be discussed by our team of medical education and communications company (MECC) professionals and the other by our team of academic/hospital-based professionals. As promised, we’re giving you a chance to read through the cases in advance and perhaps think about how you would address the issues that they raise. Case 1 can be accessed by clicking here. Case 2 can be accessed by clicking here.

Grant Review Mythbusters — Two examples of grantor “myths” that will be addressed in our 11 a.m. ET session sponsored by Forefront Collaborative:

Myth 1: A provider’s grant will get more attention as an unsolicited submission rather than a response to a RFP since an RFP generates so many responses.

Myth 2: A high percentage of submitted grants are eliminated through a screening or other vetting process and never make it to committee.

Chatting With Graham McMahon — Our 1 p.m. “Dessert Session” with ACCME President and CEO Graham McMahon sponsored by Prova Education will tackle a whole host of questions that were submitted by the CMEpalooza community. Among them:

Do you think that the new accreditation criteria will result in fewer providers achieving accreditation with commendation? What are your plans to provide learning resources for providers who may think that achieving accreditation with commendation as too difficult to attempt in the future?

When people say that CME is thinly disguised promotional education, or that there is little evidence that CME actually changes behavior, what are your ‘floor ’em’ responses?

The CME Advice Columnists – We’re apparently a community that needs a lot of expert advice. Who knew? Here is an example of one of the “letters” that our panel will be addressing tomorrow during our 2 p.m. ET session sponsored by Integrity CE:

Dear CMEpalooza Advice Columnists,

A high school friend of mine recently helped me get a job at the small hospital she works at in the suburbs. One of my responsibilities is to serve as our CME Coordinator. The only problem is that I know nothing about CME (my friend told me before I took the job that I’d “figure it out”), and I’m too embarrassed to ask any of the doctors here for help or advice.

How can I learn what I need to know without anyone finding out about it?

Signed,

A Beginner’s Beginner

Is your appetite whet yet? Would you even know if it was? What does that phrase even mean anyway?

Regardless, these are just a few tidbits related to a few of our CMEpalooza Fall sessions. If you need a last-minute check of the Agenda to decide when you might want to confirm a “meeting” or two, please do take a look (I recommend blocking off the whole day, but I know that that might not be realistic for everyone).

It’s CMEpalooza Week!

Not that I really think we need to remind you again, but it is indeed CMEpalooza Week (officially recognized as such in 4 U.S. states and 2 territories). We’ve got a bunch of stuff coming your way here in the 48 hours before we officially kick things off, so consider this as your Monday morning primer. Here is what to expect:

  • Obviously and most importantly, the live, free broadcast of CMEpalooza Fall will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday. You can watch all of the sessions on our Live page. If you want to refresh your memory regarding our sessions, just go to our Fall Agenda page. We hope that you have blocked off your calendar with “meetings” or are working on a “family emergency” for Wednesday. You’ll thank us later.
  • We’ll be posting the two case studies that will be discussed in our 10 a.m. ET kickoff session, Common/Not-So-Common Case Conundrums in CME (sponsored by Global Academy for Medical Education) on Tuesday morning so you can read through and think about them in advance. You may even get one of the “letters” that will be addressed by our Dear Abby crew of CME Advice Columnists at 2 p.m. ET if you are nice.
  • Derek will tell you on Tuesday all that you need to know about watching the live broadcast. It’s really, really easy. He’ll also explain all the ways in which you can ask questions during every session. We hope that you’ll take the opportunity to (anonymously) participate – our best sessions are the ones where we get people to chime in.
  • Our social media feeds will be busy with last-minute items, including reminders to visit our Sponsor page to check out all of those brilliant organizations who have aligned themselves with CMEpalooza, as well as some snarky memes that we find while trolling the Interwebs.
  • One last thing: For those of you who are wondering, no, it’s not a coincidence that CMEpalooza Fall coincides with the opening tip of the Philadelphia 76ers season. Derek has already told me not to bother him until at least mid-January once the season begins. Gladly, my friend, gladly. (note from Derek: “TRUST THE PROCESS!”)

Have a good week everyone, and we’ll “see” you all soon!

CMEpalooza Bingo!! prize drawing winners

We held our prize drawing for CMEpalooza Bingo!! this morning. It was quite the event – you may have seen it on your local news channel. We hired the legendary Wink Martindale to be our Master of Ceremonies and brought in one of those giant wire barrels to spin around with all of our winning entries.

It was drizzling outside a bit, but I still estimate we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 attendees for the event – certainly way way more than any other promotional drawing that has ever been held in the United States in the last 100 years. I won’t believe any photos you may have that prove otherwise.

Anyway, here are our winners:

GRAND PRIZE ($100 Amazon gift card)

  • Ellen F. Simes, Simes Consulting

SECOND PRIZES ($50 Amazon gift cards)

  • Karin Pearson, Tufts University School of Medicine
  • Amanda Glazar, Kynectiv
  • Sara Brykalski, ACHL
  • Lindsey Schneider, Minnesota Medical Association

THIRD PRIZES ($25 Amazon gift cards)

  • Sandy Mardant, A.D.A.M.
  • Betty Riggs, PharmApprise Consulting
  • Bonnie J. Bixler, Penn State College of Medicine
  • Melissa Hicks, Patient Advocate
  • Danielle DuFour, Bellin Health Systems, Inc.
  • Joanne Wise, University at Albany School of Public Health
  • Kristi J. English, MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Stacy A. Snyder, Penn State College of Medicine

For anyone who may be interested in all of the answers to our game board, you can find them by clicking on this link. Thanks again to everyone who participated!