In his essay The Etiquette of Freedom, Gary Snyder provides the following life advice:

Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness.

Snyder–who was friends with Wendell Berry, climbing partners with Allen Ginsberg, and the inspiration for Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums–famously practiced what he preached. And while we like to think that CMEpalooza embraces a number of these principles, I’m specifically writing today to help you with the last one: lots of walking.

Today is the start of the CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge, sponsored once again by Talem Health. Whether you’re looking to get closer to the wholeness of the existing world by walking a lot or just need to get away from your friggin’ computer screen for 10 minutes, all our welcome to join and participate. Here are all the details you need to know.

• The challenge begins today (Monday, April 20) and will go until the end of the day on Sunday, April 26
• The challenge is to record at least 10,000 steps in one day. For each day during the challenge period that you record 10,000 steps, please send in a screenshot of your step-counting device with the number of recorded steps, either by email (thecmeguy@gmail.com) or text (267-666-0CME [0263]). Please include the following information:
  • Screenshot of number of steps
  • Date of steps
  • Name
  • Email
  • Physical mailing address (we need this to send you merch)
• For each day you achieve 10,000 steps and send in a screenshot, you will be entered into a random drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card (there are five gift cards; you cannot win more than one.) Winners will be drawn during the week of CMEpalooza Spring. You can send them in each day individually, or you can send them all in at once at the end. It doesn’t matter to me.
• The person who records and submits the most steps in one day wins a $250 Amazon gift card
• Please send in your steps by 5 pm ET on Monday, April 27
• Everyone who enters even one day will receive this sweet Yeti mug courtesy of Talem Health.
  

Thanks everyone and good luck!

CMEpalooza STEPtacular Challenge sponsored by:

Imagine it’s late 1991. You’re sitting in the driver’s seat of your used Mazda RX-7 in the 7-Eleven parking lot, sucking on the straw of your Big Gulp filled with ice cold Orange Crush, which you bought to calm yourself down after you accidentally dropped your Queensrÿche Empire cassette on the ground and clumsily trod over it with your black British Knights high tops. Disaster!

Wiping an orange drop off your Bugle Boy jeans and adjusting the class ring you just picked up from Jostens, you snap on the car radio and rest your mulleted head back against the headrest as the opening strains of Temple of the Dog’s Hunger Strike begins to play.

Oh great, you mumble to yourself, just what we need, another pseudo-grunge Pearl Jam knockoff.

Then the lead singer makes his first appearance.

I don’t mind stealin’ bread..

Hold on a minute, you think. That sounds like Eddie Vedder.

From the mouths of decadents…

You straighten up in your seat a little. That is Eddie Vedder. What’s going on here? Is there a new Pearl Jam song out? And old unreleased song? Whatever it is, it’s pretty good. Your day just got a little bit better.

You keep listening, nodding along, making a note to next time ask Sheila at the Hair Cuttery to trim the top a little shorter so your gelled-up spikes don’t brush the roof of the RX-7. So annoying!

Then the chorus kicks in.

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYY)

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. No, that can’t be right. That sounds like Chris Cornell doing the echo, but that’s impossible.

You reach out and turn up the volume.

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYY)

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYYAYYAYY)

I’m going hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…(going hungryyyyy-AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY)

That is definitely Chris Cornell. You would recognize his voice anywhere, because if Pearl Jam is your favorite band, then Soundgarden is next on the list.

You keep listening, still a bit stunned, to Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell trading lead vocals for the rest of the song. It’s hard for you to believe that, unexpectedly, some of your favorite people are together in the same place.

Last week, I had the pleasure of joining two of my favorite colleagues, Karen Roy and Greselda Butler, for a presentation on Bridging the Gap: What Medical Affairs Can Learn from CME to Elevate External Education at the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) Annual Americas Meeting. It was my first time attending MAPS and, if I’m doing my math correctly, my first time presenting at a non-CME/CE conference. I’m pretty sure that’s accurate. At the very least, it’s been quite a while since I’ve done a presentation that was not primarily focused on a CME/CE audience.

I’ve been attending the Alliance conference for 25 years, and when I go, I see more familiar faces than unfamiliar faces. It’s basically a reunion of old friends and colleagues. Since this was my first time attending MAPS, I saw far fewer familiar faces…or so I expected.

One of the cool things for me at the conference was that I kept running into pockets of IME friends at different times and places: strolling down the conference hall; presenting at a workshop; grabbing lunch from the table stacked with extremely mediocre sandwiches; at the hotel lobby bar after the last session. Hey, is that Wendy at the podium? I think that’s John holding a glass of white wine. Shoot, Mike just took the last turkey wrap. Familiar faces in unexpected places. It was fun to unexpectedly find some of my favorite people together in the same place.

A unique trait of the CME/CE community is that it is just that—a community. We do the same work. We work in the same places. We go to the same meetings. We know the same people. We have our ups and downs. People come and people go. But we are a community and that’s something I truly appreciate.

This is a continuation of our special AUA: IME Supporter Edition from earlier this week. Click here to view Part 1.

As a reminder, if you have an issue (professional or personal) you would like help with, click here to submit your question(s). We like offering advice and people seem to enjoy hearing our opinions (we won’t comment as to whether our advice is any good).

Now, on to the questions!

Q: In terms of the number of participants, are you seeking the highest number of participants or evidence that it is the right target audience?

Each organization views this differently; however, I would venture that for the majority of us, we are seeking evidence that the right audience participated in the education. High numbers can catch one’s attention, but our medical teams are getting more savvy. Depending on the disease state, a high number of promised learners will instantly draw skepticism and dilute the value of what we are trying to convey. When medical starts asking questions about who participated in the program, and the only information we can share is a large number and not evidence that it was our target audience, we’ve lost their interest and a chance for them trusting the value of the data we’re sharing.

Q: Trying to determine what each grantor requests for outcomes/impact is challenging. Whatever happened to the Outcomes Standardization Project? 

The OSP has been effective in establishing consistent definitions for terms commonly used across our industry. From what I have observed, many providers have adopted these OSP definitions, and when reviewing grant submissions, I do appreciate when groups apply them. If a provider chooses not to adopt OSP definitions, I would expect them to clearly explain how they are defining clinicians and the phases of engagement within their program.

All that said, expecting full alignment in outcomes reporting across companies is likely unrealistic (note from Derek: Yup.) Supporters have emphasized for several years that outcomes reports are critical for IME teams, but there is also increasing diversity in how programs are designed and evaluated. As technology continues to influence both society and education, CME programs have evolved and innovated in ways that generate more varied and unique datasets. Because of this, providers should move beyond focusing primarily on large participation numbers or basic pre- and post-test metrics. Instead, they should think more strategically about how to demonstrate program impact. The goal should be to communicate outcomes in a way that clearly conveys the value of the program to stakeholders who may not have a background in CME, while highlighting insights that will resonate with industry colleagues.

Q: Regarding multi-support, if it takes more than a year to get sufficient funding even to meet the contingency plan, do you prefer the provider keep seeking funding or would you like the funding returned?

Communication is vital in multifunder situations. First, I think the contingency plan should always include what can be accomplished with the amount of funding you requested from a single supporter. Then, once you receive approval of funding from a supporter, regular monthly updates on other support decisions are helpful. As the proposed start date approaches, there should be a discussion of whether the committed supporter wishes to move forward with just their support, wait for further decisions, or request that funding be returned. There are very few programs that I would be willing to wait a year for. And to my fellow supporter colleagues, I’d be interested in hearing why it is taking more than a year to make a decision.

Q: Where do the number of learners and the cost per learner rank on the list of things to look for when reviewing a proposal?

Cost per learner is not something I prioritize. What’s more important is the right audience and the audience generation methodology applied. If the provider is leveraging lists or distribution partners, I will dig into that. Can they deliver the right audience? What is the mix of disciplines I could expect (e.g. if I’m expecting physicians, is the program going to give me more nurses or pharmacists?). When I see large numbers, I question the authenticity of those numbers. I also try to dig into the demographics more. If the report has large numbers, and I am able to dig and drill down into my specific audience and learn that only 10% of the audience was my target learner, I will get frustrated. But the CME provider can redeem themselves if they perform a deeper analysis or segmentation of that small target audience. What is most important is seeing the data and impact on the audience that the supporter is interested in reaching.

Q: Is there ever any concern (Legal? Internal?) that RFPs might be seen as guiding content because of the detail provided?

This is absolutely something that our Ethics & Compliance and Legal departments are concerned about and why they are involved in the review of all RFPs before they can be posted. Some companies are more conservative than others, and like most things in IME, “guidance” and “influence” are open to interpretation. This is why providers may feel that some RFPs don’t really say anything about what the supporter wants to see. In these cases, the internal compliance folks likely have a wide interpretation of what constitutes influence on content, which ensures the information in RFPs remains at a very broad level.