Despite the pending snowpocalypse in the northeast corridor of the country, CMEpalooza rolls on! We’re delighted to announce our first two sponsors for CMEpalooza Spring: CMEology, a bronze sponsor and returning sponsor from the Fall palooza; and ArcheMedX, a newcomer who I’m thrilled to announce will be a gold sponsor.
We will be working with ArcheMedX over the next few weeks to put together a lunchtime session for CMEpalooza Spring and will announce the details once they are finalized. I encourage you to visit our Sponsors page and check out the videos for both CMEology (Estimating Health Care Cost Savings from an Educational Intervention to Prevent Bleeding-Related Complications: The Outcomes Impact Analysis Model) and ArcheMedX (Natural Learning Actions Explanatory Video for CE Professionals). Interesting stuff from both!
Anyone interested in joining these two as a sponsor of CMEpalooza Spring or Fall (or both) can get all of the information on the Sponsor tab of our website.
Also, a reminder that abstracts for CMEpalooza Spring are due on Friday. Go submit now!
Yes, I know the paper I’m holding says “CMEpalooza Fall”; just work with me here. It’s all I had when I was forced against my will to enter the PlatformQ photo booth at the Alliance conference last week (Lies. I entered willingly. Scott refused and I think we’re all the better for it.) Anyhoo, happy Friday y’all! (Philadelphians, that’s Texan for “youse”. Pittsburghians, “yinz”.) You have one week to submit an abstract for CMEpalooza Spring. One of us may have told a few people the due date was January 31 when, in fact, it is actually January 30. I don’t think it’s important to dwell on the details of which one of us screwed up (hint: his name rhymes with Eric Yornick), but here is the link for submitting. Go do it now!
Look, I’m just going to come right out and say it — I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan. I was seduced to the dark side by little Wendi Jackson when I was an innocent 2nd grader growing up in lower Delaware. She casually mentioned on the school bus one day that she liked the Cowboys and quicker then you can say Ed “Too Tall” Jones, I tossed my Eagles fandom to the wayside and became a die-hard Cowpoke fan. I’m not particularly proud of this fact (though I still blame my parents for not offering better sports team loyalty guidance), but I have maintained my rooting interest in the team over the years, no easy matter considering I have lived in Philadelphia — the epicenter of Dallas Cowboys hatred — since 1996.
I share this with you now because as I write this blog post, I am in a supremely cranky mood. If you follow the National Football League with even just a passing interest, you are no doubt aware that the Cowboys lost an eminently winnable playoff game to the meat-packers from Green Bay just a few hours ago. Part of that loss featured an amazing 4th down catch by Dez Bryant late in the game in which he out-jumped a defender, CAUGHT THE BALL, fell down, stretched out towards the end zone, hit the ball on the ground, bobbled the ball, and then regained possession of the ball. Somehow, this was not considered a catch and the Cowboys lost and now I’m cranky and I’m supposed to write about the different CMEpalooza-related things happening at the Alliance for Continuing Education on the Health Professions’s 40th Annual Conference in…you guessed it…Dallas. I had this whole schtick I was going to do comparing the Cowboys and the Super Bowl and CMEpalooza and the “Super Bowl of CME conferences”, but now I’m not doing it because I’m pouting. I’m still going to write about the CMEpalooza stuff (because I’m rather proud of it), I’m just not going to do any witty football references or Chris Christie jokes along with it.
All that being said, CMEpalooza is going to be well represented at #acehp15. Here are some of the things Scott and I will be involved in this week:
Using Social Media in Medical Education: Are You Utilizing All Your Resources? Technology Track: Thursday (1/15) Breakouts 10:30 – 11:30 AM
Texas Ballroom D I (Derek) will be joining Brian McGowan and Alex Djuricich to talk about using social media in medical education (obvs). My role will be to talk about CMEpalooza and the role social media has played in the development and promotion of the program.
Hanging with Mr. Google (On Air) Technology Track: Thursday (1/15) Breakouts 1:15 – 2:15 PM
Texas Ballroom D Hey, this is handy — you don’t even have to leave the room (unless you want lunch, but let’s face it — this is Texas and you’re probably going out for dinner the night before and having a steak the size of Rhode Island, so maybe skipping lunch isn’t such a bad idea, hmmm?) This session isn’t about CMEpalooza per se, but it does demonstrate how Scott and I use Google Hangouts, which is the framework behind CMEpalooza. Scott and I are doing this one together, which I am now regretting since Scott is a lifelong Eagles fan and I may or may not have made a few jokes at their expense in recent emails between the two of us.
ReachMD Lifelong Learning Series To be honest, I don’t know too much about this, yet, other than that Scott and I are going to be interviewed by the ReachMD folks on Thursday about our Hanging with Mr. Google session. I’m told the interview will be available in multiple formats, including video, so, more details to follow when we know them. Personally, I just want to know where my dressing room will be and who I should deliver my contract rider to (gonna demand a bowl of only green M&M’s).
Besides the above, you can find Scott and I roaming aimlessly around the conference center, so feel free to stop us and ask any questions you may have. We are always happy to talk about CMEpalooza and I promise to be less cranky by then.
CMEPALOOZA 