CMEpalooza Haiku

I thought about not doing CMEpalooza Haiku this time, but it’s Scott’s favorite recurring post and he begged and begged me to do it again. I hate to disappoint the guy, so here again are summaries of each CMEpalooza Spring session in haiku. Enjoy!

april the nineteenth
cmepalooza spring
here we go again

best learning formats?
you’ll find out at ten a.m.
from the horse’s mouth

cookie dough is good
just like your programs should be
the worst: vanilla

one, two, and three A’s
forays into the four A’s
five is one too much

if the word “network”
causes you fear and loathing
this session’s for you

what is “data viz?”
not sure, but you’re a poet
and might not know it

such a foggy world
is CME compliance
here is clarity

the day’s last session
a mistake celebration
so perfect for scott

don’t forget to watch
the GAME Company Spotlight
it’s today at noon

You Could Be Doing This, Too

This is the blog post where I remind all of you that you could be doing this, too. Not literally sitting in a coffee shop at 21st and Walnut Sts. in Philadelphia typing a blog post while you wait for your 10-year-old daughter to finish orchestra practice (she plays the violin. I am easily the least talented person in this family…), but you could be using the same tools that Scott and I use to run CMEpalooza. This is what we use:

  • WordPress for our website/blog
  • YouTube Live (née Google Hangouts) to stream presentations
  • WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for promotion

That’s basically it. Yes, there’s a little bit of a learning curve for using these things, but less than you might think. Every year the technology gets better, the video quality improves, and it gets easier for people to use. We have far fewer tech issues now than when we first started doing CMEpalooza (OK, yes, the first session of CMEpalooza Fall 2016 went completely offline for a few minutes, but that was because my stupid laptop crapped out, which was my own dumb fault) and the majority of our faculty are able to come right onto their session Hangouts with little difficulty. The technology works. It’s not perfect, but it works pretty dang well.

Now here’s the kicker. Do you know how much it costs for us to produce CMEpalooza? Any guesses?

$25.

I pay 25 bucks for the CMEpalooza.com URL (which I pay all on my own. Do I ask Scott to chip in? I do not, because that’s the kind of guy I am. I’m a giver.) That’s it. Everything else is free. I’m not including the hours Scott and I put into it, but the website cost is the only monetary expense involved. This is definitely something you can afford to try.

In closing, let me remind you of a couple of upcoming CMEpalooza-related activities.

CMEpalooza Presents…Our 2017 Spring Agenda!

Quick show of hands: Who would like to read another one of my rants about people who continue to write “CMEpalooza” incorrectly (you know who you are, by the way)?

OK…OK, nobody.

Who would like to read 5,000 words from Scott breaking down all the sessions in the CMEpalooza archive into an NCAA March Madness-style bracket, complete with a final CMEpalooza Session National Champion?

OK…OK, I see one guy in the back with his hand rai-…no…no, he was just scratching his nose.

And who would like me to just get to the agenda?

That’s what I thought. Let’s get right to the agenda then. Below is the (mostly) final agenda for CMEpalooza Spring. We might have a few edits or updates between now and April 19, but this is pretty much it. We’re really thrilled with our lineup and think it will be our best CMEpalooza, yet. Onward!

9 a.m. ET
Breakfast Session Sponsored by Prova Education

Topic and Speakers TBA

10 a.m. ET
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth: Learning Preferences of Healthcare Providers
How can we be sure that we are providing our audience with the best formats for learning? This session will provide answers to all our burning questions around how HCPs learn through an engaging interview with a well-respected family physician. He is a prolific educator and has advised many CME providers on the development of certified education. The interview will discuss different formats used in CME that are engaging to a HCP audience and how learners prefer to receive their education. This will then be tied to the type of data we as CME providers can glean from these different educational formats.

Moderator
Amanda Glazar, PhD, CHCP, Director, Medical Education, Kynectiv

Panelist
Paul Doghramji, MD, Family Physician, Collegeville Family Practice

11 a.m. ET
Two Scoops of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Please!
CME activities have become too vanilla. Redundancy abounds and it has become more and more difficult to differentiate one program from another. What does it take to be truly innovative? What are groups doing to separate themselves from the masses? This panel of commercial supporters will discuss what they look for in a grant proposal, the elements that make an activity stand out from the crowd, and provide examples of innovation in education that they have funded recently. Learn how to turn your vanilla program into two scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough!

Moderator
Karen Roy, MSc, Principal and Co-founder, infograph-ed, LLC, Principal, Ardgillan Group, LLC

Panelists
Angelo Carter, PharmD, Director, Grant Officer, Global Medical Grants and Research Collaborations, Pfizer
Helen Kostarides, Consultant, Medical Education Grants – Oncology, Lilly Grant Office, Eli Lilly and Company
Greselda Butler, CHCP, Senior Manager, Grants and Contributions, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical Inc
.

Noon ET
Lunchtime Session Sponsored by Genentech

Forays into the Four “A’s”: Promoting Systems-Based Changes in CME
After the identification of a system-based educational gap, providers are typically challenged with Activating, Advancing, Aspiring toward and/or Allocating resources to help address and close that gap. This is the reason why The Expanded Learning Model for Systems (TELMS) was developed to serve as adjunct to existing learning models. In this session, provider representatives will provide examples of specific initiatives that tackled one or more of these challenges in a system-based setting and offer suggestions on how to avoid potential pitfalls that can trip up similarly proposed initiatives.

Moderator
John Ruggiero, PhD, Associate Director, Genentech U.S. Medical Affairs, Learning & Clinical Integration

Panelists
Donna Harris, Senior Director, US/Global Education, Med-IQ, LLC
Caroline O. Robinson, PhD, Senior Director of Learning and Analytics, Prime Education
Linda Gracie-King, Managing Partner/Co-Founder, Axis Medical Education
Matthew Frese, General Manager, MedLearningGroup
Rob Braun, Senior Director, Medscape Education
Pamela Peters, PhD, Director of Quality and Strategy, Medscape Education

1 p.m. ET
Networking with the Best of Them: How to Make Friends and Influence People
As we work to develop educational interventions that encourage our clinician learners to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams, it is pXXXrudent that we also do this within our own organizations. Within most of our organizations, networking intra-departmentally and cross-departmentally is critical, as is doing so between CE providers, industry, and other stakeholders. As such, we have all witnessed the fruit borne out when networking has been optimized and the stank of when it has not. This session will provide useful tips from seasoned CE professionals on how to make friends and influence people as we all strive to implement better CE/CPD.

Panelists
Monique Johnson, MD, CHCP, Director, Medical Affairs, Imedex
Susan Yarbrough, CHCP, Director, Continuing Professional Development, Imedex
Allison Kickel, CHCP, Senior Director, Business Development, Imedex

2 p.m. ET
What is Data Visualization and How Can I Apply It?

Is there any room for improvement in how you present data and information in a succinct and digestible fashion? For most if not all of us, the answer is YES! Providers and supporters can all benefit from the use and understanding of Data Visualization (“data viz”) techniques and tools. Visual processing plays a large role in how human beings experience the world, and the integration of visual messages that are easily interpreted with minimal cognitive stress can tremendously help in message communication. In this moderated panel, we will review some basic data viz concepts and techniques, review case studies and hear from different stakeholders in the CEHP community who have benefited from the use of data viz in their communications.

Moderator
Anne Roc, PhD, Senior Medical Director, PlatformQ Health Education

Panelists
Bhaval Shah, PhD, Principal (Creative) and Co-founder, infograph-ed, LLC
Julia Shklovskaya, MPA, Senior Manager, Independent Medical Education and Medical External Affairs, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Lauren Welch, MA, Vice President, Outcomes and Accreditation, Med Learning Group

3 p.m. ET
Is That Compliant? Separating Fact from Fiction in Accredited CME
Can the supporter have a copy of the participant list from the program? Does the medical director who sits in the office next to mine qualify as a non-biased reviewer to resolve a conflict of interest? Can this faculty member with a conflict of interest disclosure 3 pages long serve as the course chair? What if the answer to these questions was “Yes, yes, and yes,” but at the same time “Probably not a good idea”? There is an incredible amount of misperception and misunderstanding about what does and does not comply with ACCME criteria. Much of this may be due to fear of rules that do not exist and an understandable abundance of caution. This session will explore some of the difficult-to-answer questions in CME compliance and provide clarity between what is compliant, non-compliant, and compliant-but-a-bad-idea.

Moderator
Michael Baffuto, CHCP, President, Integrity Continuing Education

Panelists
Brooke Taylor, Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Mindi Daiga, MBA, VP, CME Compliance and Operations, Pri-Med
Beth Brillinger, CHCP, Director of Accreditation, CME Outfitters, LLC

4 p.m. ET
Celebrating Our Mistakes: A Retrospective Analysis of “What Went Wrong”
We celebrate our successes in work and in life – applying for awards, highlighting our breakthroughs in grant proposals – that all help us get through the day. But it’s often in our failures that we learn the most that adapt our approaches for the future. This case-based session will retrospectively examine several “failures” of our team of presenters, providing insight into why these initiatives failed and what they and others can learn from those failures.

Moderator
Scott Bradbury, Director of E-Learning, American Academy of Pediatrics

Panelists
Mary Ales, Executive Director, Interstate Postgraduate Medical Association
Erica Klopp, Director, Continuing Education, Reading Health System
Ellen L. Cohen, Cert.Ed., Dip.Ed., CHCP, Director, CME Accreditation & Maintenance of Certification at American College of Cardiology