10 Years in 10 Minutes: Wendy Turell

Despite boldly announcing at the beginning of today’s interview with Wendy Turell, Associate Director, Global Medical Affairs Oncology, Scientific Engagement at Daiichi Sankyo, that this was the last in our “10 Years in 10 Minutes” series, I later realized that it is actually, in fact, not the last one. It is the fifth of six, the last of which will be on Wednesday. Those of you who have been following along closely might remember that I also made a mistake at the beginning of my interview with Brian McGowan a couple weeks ago. The lesson here is that I should probably refrain from talking during these interviews and limit myself to hand gestures and nodding along.

Nevertheless, I was thrilled to have a few minutes to talk with Wendy about her presentation at the inaugural CMEpalooza on Qualitative Research and CEHP. Wendy and co-presenter Alex Howson from Write Medicine were the first “panel” presentation at CMEpalooza (can two people make a panel? Let’s say yes), the success of which helped show some of the possibilities of the Google Hangouts On-Air format. At the same time, Wendy was the first presenter who suffered serious technical issues, to the point that I thought Alex might have to do the presentation on her own, and helped show some of the challenges with the format (side note: if you watch the original presentation, you can see Wendy make a sudden dramatic appearance on screen, tech issues resolved, popping on just as I begin the introductions. High stakes drama!)

Wendy and I discuss all of these things, plus her thoughts on the value of qualitative research in CME today, why we are still fighting the same battles 10 years later, and even a tip for a fun family vacation spot. All that in a neat 10 minutes.

 

10 Years in 10 Minutes: Pam Beaton

The next victim is our special “10 Years in 10 Minutes” interview series is Pam Beaton, currently living abroad as the Global Head of Medical Education, Grants, Sponsorships, and Collaborative Partnerships at Boehringer Ingelheim. Pam is also currently on the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions.

At the initial CMEpalooza Spring back in 2014, Pam was working at the American College of Chest Physicians and presented on the topic of EACCME Made Easy, where she shared her (at the time) recent experience with European accreditation. Of course, it was this presentation that set the stage for her eventual move to Germany once everyone saw how adroitly Pam was able to straddle worlds separated by the Atlantic Ocean. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

On today’s interview, we talk about Pam’s experiences as a novice virtual presenter, some of today’s ongoing intricacies with European accreditation, and the wonders of the Christmas markets in Germany.

10 Years in 10 Minutes: Beth Brillinger

Next up on our 10 Years in 10 Minutes interview series is my friend and former colleague from two different stops on our CME journey (Thomas Jefferson University and Pfizer) Beth Brillinger. Beth’s presentation at the first CMEpalooza was on Activity Planning: Improving the Process to Align with Accreditation Criteria and wrapped up in a crisp 16 minutes. While I would never go back to the days of letting presenters choose any random length of time for their presentations, there definitely is something to be said for the type of short informative sessions that Beth and a couple of others did. Maybe instead of eight 1-hour sessions we should do thirty-two 15-minute session? I can hear Scott grinding his teeth from here…

We cover the standard topics during the interview, along with a quick career check-in. Anyone who knows Beth knows she is longtime motorhead, so I couldn’t help finishing up the interview with a little Formula 1 talk. Check out the full interview below.