VIEW on Medical Education August 2007 Strengthening the Value of Live CME: Cutting-Edge Strategies to Engage Learners and Extend Reach Sarah Mooney, Director, Strategic Planning & Development Innovia Education Institute LLC In 2006, more than 2 million physicians and healthcare practitioners participated in live continuing medical education (CME) courses. Often these live programs were presented as on-agenda and satellite symposia at large national medical association meetings and featured the leading clinical thought leaders in a particular disease state or therapeutic area. Case studies, interactive audience response systems, patient simulations, and insights into the latest data and their clinical applications drew audiences eager to learn from the leaders in their respective fields. Access to the wisdom of these faculty members and innovative program formats should not be limited to only those clinicians able to attend these events in person, nor should it end when learners submit their program evaluations at the end of the program. In fact, the live program evaluation serves as a vital tool in the development of an integrated sequential, or stepwise, learning program that continuously assesses educational needs and strives to eliminate gaps in clinical practice. By beginning with the end in mind and building an integrated suite of programs that incorporates multiple adult learning styles, the live CME program serves as a hub for sequential learning activities. The value of CME content developed for the live program can be expanded and applied to various learning formats, which can in turn enable the delivery of content to additional learners and audiences. In fact, recent data confirm that integrated CME activities, for example, those that include at least two educational formats, are most likely to lead to a change in practice. Strategies to Engage Learners from the Beginning Ideally, integrated learning programs built around a live CME event provide learners with the opportunity to offer input on their educational needs, evaluate their initial learning experience and identify additional educational needs and gaps, and formulate questions based on new data, guidelines, or practice paradigms. To that end, it is vital that the program evaluations for the live event capture this information, and that it be continuously incorporated into the development of content for subsequent activities. Learners can become engaged before they even take their seats by answering a few questions at program registration. For example, soliciting input about specific barriers to patient care in a particular population or disease state or offering examples of challenging cases can instantly engage the learner and provide valuable insights into educational gaps. Expanding Reach and Extending Educational Value Consider the following scenario: program content from a live symposium at a national cardiology conference can be extended to reach many more cardiologists via a series of online Webinars, an ePocrates Mobile CME series, and an MP3 download of the audio file. All programs may be housed on Web portals such as those developed by ExtendMed. This in turn can be adapted to meet the needs of cardiology nurses through programming, such as online decision-based cases, a Webinar series, and an expert clinical interpretation from a leading cardiac nurse under a specially designed section of the portal. Once the suite of programs is active, a live question-and-answer session with the original live program faculty may be scheduled to reinforce key learning objectives and provide participants a forum for continued dialogue with these thought leaders. More than 20 years ago, Cyril Houle wrote in his book, “Continuing Learning in the Professions,” that, in order to achieve its greatest potential, CME must be truly continuing — not casual or sporadic. This is especially true today as CME supporters, the ACCME, and even government entities demand proof of the additive value and impact of educational programming on patient care. Innovia Education Institute LLC, Columbia, Md., a 100% in-house, employee-owned company, is an ACCME-accredited provider of CME whose science, editorial, and management experts blend high-caliber science with strategic program design and development for consistently relevant, responsible educational programs. For more information, visit innoviaeducation.com. Extending the Value of Live CME: Increasing the Reach Format Learners Reached* Live symposium 500 Three online Webinars 250 Mobile CME 600 MP3 download 750 Extended Value = 1,600 learners Extending the Value of Live CME: Expanding the Audience (nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, and other healthcare providers) Format Learners Reached** Live symposium 500 Three online Webinars 350 Mobile CME 600 MP3 download 800 Extended value = 1,750 learners Notes: * Hypothetical case study; program marketing strategies, number of invitations, etc. may vary; ** Numbers vary by specialty and audience, and do not reflect learners who do not request CME credit for the activity

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