Last week, Derek and I gave what I thought was a pretty successful series of presentations about CMEpalooza and our use of Google Hangouts On Air during the World Congress on Continuing Professional Development in San Diego.

We participated in one of the conference’s two “Innovation Lab Demonstrations” where session attendees were split into groups of approximately 10-15 individuals, rotating between each station for a 15-minute presentation.

Kudos to the conference organizers and especially Tym Peters from the University of California at San Francisco (our moderator and timekeeper) for being willing to try a new format and adapting between Day 1 and Day 2 to make a better experience for learners. Essentially, they turned the tables around so that each presenter didn’t have to raise his/her voice to be heard over the noise in the room – an easy fix, perhaps, but it made a big difference.

My rough estimate was that about half of the attendees had heard of and/or were familiar with CMEpalooza – not bad for an international audience. There were a variety of questions about our events and the potential use of Google Hangouts On Air (GHOA) for accredited educational activities. It was nice to see the wheels in the minds of some of our attendees churning as they thought about how to leverage the platform for their own purposes.

While there are certainly some nuances that take some getting used to as a regular moderator of the GHOA platform, both Derek and I have found it to be a very user-friendly platform that simply requires some experimenting and testing to master.

As part of our World Congress presentation, we developed a handout that walks through the basics of how to set up a GHOA session – basically, it’s your beginner’s guide. You can access the handout by clicking on this link. If you want to start tooling around, this should hopefully get you started. We’re always interested in hearing from others who are dipping their toe into the GHOA waters and answering any questions you have about it, so feel free to reach out to either of us if you really get stuck.

 

Six more #CMEpalooza Challenges on day 2 of the World Congress on Continuing Professional Development and a bunch more winners of $10 Amazon gift cards. We’ll figure out some sort of adapted promotion next week for any challenges that go unclaimed, if only to give people who couldn’t be in San Diego a chance to share in the loot.

Today is the final day of the Congress, with three final challenges on the docket, so still plenty of reasons to watch us on Twitter.

CMEpalooza Challenge #1
Challenge: 1st to attend the 9:30 a.m. generational talk and define “millennial” for presenters wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: Be the first to define “millennial” at the generational learning session led by Clinical Care Options at 9:30 am Friday
Winner: Someone one, but Derek was not nosy enough to get her name. His pay will be docked accordingly.

CMEpalooza Challenge #2
Challenge: 1st one to find @MedCaseWriter and give him a high five wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: With over 25 years in medical education, RMEI saw the Sunshine regulations on meals coming. Our wall of vintage “boxed lunches” proves it!

Winner: Ronald Murray

CMEpalooza Challenge #3
Challenge: 1st to come to our 11 am session and ask a question using the word “aardvark” wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: With 3 out of every 4 employees women, at ACHL, CME stands for “Continual Maternity Exoduses”
Winner: Derek Dietze

CMEpalooza Challenge #4
Challenge: 1st to find @MedCaseWriter and have him sign your name badge wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: For Audrie Tornow of Paradigm, irony is having been a hospital volunteer filing medical records as a teenager, and working in CME now
Winner: Jeanne Cole

CMEpalooza Challenge #5
Challenge: 1st to tell @thecmeguy the name of the first “Survivor” winner wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: Global Academy for Medical Education, sister company of Frontline Medical Communications, has been a developer of CME/CE activities for 20 years
Winner: Still up for grabs

CMEpalooza Challenge #6
Challenge: First person to give @MedCaseWriter a piece of candy wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: At the end of 2015, mobile devices finally overtook the desktop as the predominant mode of clinician access to @PeerView‘s online educational activities
Winner: Still up for grabs

Day 1 of the #CMEpalooza Challenge is in the books.

Here is a recap of the challenges, our sponsor fun facts, and the winners. Several of the challenges went unclaimed, so for those of you at the World Congress of Continuing Professional Development, take a look and feel free to complete any of the outstanding challenges to win your $10 Amazon gift card.

We’ll be throwing out a number of additional challenges starting at 9 a.m. PT today.

CMEpalooza Challenge #1
Challenge: 1st to show @thecmeguy their completed NCAA basketball bracket wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: CMEology, located in the childhood hometown of Wavy Gravy, the “official clown” of the Grateful Dead, has shown CME saves healthcare costs!
Winner: Riaz Baxamusa

CMEpalooza Challenge #2
Challenge: Find @MedCaseWriter & tell him one #1 seed in NCAA tournament
Sponsor Fun Fact: Vivacity Consulting, in sunny CA, utilizes technology similar to that used by #CMEPalooza to communicate with clients all over the world
Winner: Audrie Tornow

CMEpalooza Challenge #3
Challenge: 1st to sing to @thecmeguy the first 8 words of Greatest American Hero theme song wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: At Forefront Collaborative, on certain holidays (like St. Patty’s Day!) leadership caters a 4pm beer cart in appreciation of our hard work.
Winner: Still up for grabs!

CMEpalooza Challenge #4
Challenge: Find @MedCaseWriter and tell him who sang The Final Countdown.
Sponsor Fun Fact: Primary Care Network will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2017 and has educated more than 150,000 HCPs and awarded over 240,000 CME certificates
Winner: Tracy Bunting-Early

CMEpalooza Challenge #5
Challenge: 1st to punch @thecmeguy in the right arm (any amount of force is fine) wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: PlatformQ Health Education was named as an homage to Québec by the company’s founder Robert Rosenbloom. The “PQ” from PlatformQ is also the provincial code of Québec (“Province du Québec”) used in the Canadian Post.
Winner: John Juchniewicz

CMEpalooza Challenge #6
Challenge: Find @MedCaseWriter and tell him color of @BrianSMcGowan‘s shirt.
Sponsor Fun Fact: As reflected in the Latin roots of its name, Vindico “delivers” high-quality CME/CE.
Winner: Theresa Barrett

CMEpalooza Challenge #7
Challenge: 1st to tell @thecmeguy the name of Mike Seaver’s best friend in Growing Pains wins
Sponsor Fun Fact: What do you get if you cross an ivy league school academic and an irish story teller?  Beauty and form in your data! #infograph-ed
Winner: Still up for grabs!