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

With all of the hullabaloo at CMEpalooza headquarters regarding Monday morning’s drawing for the winner of our Spring Company Spotlight, it has come to my attention that I forgot to inform everyone of the lucky winner. It was Global Academy for Medical Education. Congrats, folks.

If you are desperate need of entertainment this morning, you can watch a replay of the drawing here. Derek is a weird shade of blue as he has his usual technological struggles.

Our external monitors from PricewaterhouseCoopers are just out of the picture over my left shoulder, but they have signed an attestation as to the winning entry. There apparently is some sort of controversy that has nothing to do with CMEpalooza regarding the work of these folks, but rest assured that their signature on a piece of paper means a lot to us!

More info coming soon on exactly what this Spotlight event is all about and when it will be held.

 

Hey gang! Derek here. I wanted to have a little chat with all of you about CMEpalooza. Not the actual Spring event, mind you. Until we have the agenda totally set (we’re almost there), we don’t have much more to tell you about it. No, I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately, and I wanted to bring it to a quick end. I’m here to talk to you about the word “CMEpalooza.”

Here’s the thing — it’s”CMEpalooza.” It’s not “CMEPalooza” or “CMEPALOOZA” or…(ugh)…”CME palooza.” It’s one word with the first three letters capitalized. It’s a mash up of “CME” and “palooza.” It’s a palooza of CME. It’s CMEpalooza.

In one of the first emails Scott sent me when we first started working on CMEpalooza together, he referred to it as “CMEPalooza.” I responded to him with a threat of fisticuffs if he ever spelled it that way again. It’s one of the few arguments I’ve ever won with him. To be fair, most of our arguments rarely extend beyond this exchange:

Me: Hey, should we try this?
Scott: No.
Me: Why not?
Scott: Because it’s dumb.
Me: Good point.

So, winning this argument was no great feat. Still, I even had “CMEpalooza” t-shirts made. See?

What I’m trying to-…wait a minute. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That’s right — CMEPALOOZA T-SHIRT CANNON AT THE NEXT ALLIANCE CONFERENCE!!! I can see it now. The first day’s keynote speaker finishes up and we’re just about ready to break for the first round of plenary sessions, when all of a sudden a loud siren begins to sound, I run onto the stage with a massive t-shirt cannon while Scott grabs the microphone and yells out “WHO WANTS A T-SHIRT?!?” The crowd goes wild as  Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”  blares overhead and I begin firing t-shirts left and right. Man, that would be great.

Where was I? Oh, right — just remember: If you’re writing it out, it’s “CMEpalooza.” All one word, no capital “P.” Now, does anyone know where I can rent a t-shirt cannon for cheap?