Creative Perspectives on CME Content Development

Panelists (from L to R) included Andrew Bowser, ELS, CHCP; Annette Schwind, MS, CHCP; and Ruwaida Vakil, MSc.

"Beyond the Needs Assessment: Creative Perspectives on CME Content Development" was the title of a 2-hour educational program that took place Thursday, November 21 in Harrisburg, PA. The program was planned, publicized, and financed with help from the Delaware Valley Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA-DVC).

Our program consisted of a lecture followed by a panel discussion. It took place immediately following the annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Alliance for Continuing Medical Education (MAACME) at the Sheraton Harrisburg/Hershey Hotel. Event co-chairs were Ruwaida Vakil, MSc and myself. In addition to Ms. Vakil, panelists included Andrew Bowser, ELS, CHCP, and Annette Schwind, MS, CHCP.

Prior to the event, more than 20 AMWA members who could not attend expressed interest in receiving any handouts or recorded materials that might be available. Selected materials have been uploaded to Google Drive and are accessible here, at no charge, for those who expressed interest. Here is a guide to what's available:

1) The complete PowerPoint slide deck. This deck contains 71 slides and includes my overview lecture as well as slides from each of the panelists, in alphabetical order. Be sure to download the actual PowerPoint file to your desktop - the preview version shown by Google Docs distorts many of the slides.

2) The video recording. You may need a software application such as QuickTime to play the video. I am a rank amateur when it comes to videography, so please be forewarned: This MP4 file is raw and unedited and it includes some long pauses as we wrestle with technology. The video begins with my overview lecture and ends after about 65 minutes. (Partway through the panel discussion, the laptop battery lost all charge.) Viewing tip: The slides projected onto the screen are not legible, so you may wish to watch the video on one computer screen while manually advancing the slides on another screen. 

3) Handouts. These include a pocket tutorial on writing needs assessments, a synopsis of an earlier AMWA roundtable about publishing outcome reports as journal articles, a collection of resources related to reporting outcomes, and brief bios of our panelists.


I'd like to thank Andy, Annette, and Ruwaida for their help and support producing this program. In addition, I'd like to thank the members of our live audience for driving to Harrisburg to attend, and for asking such insightful questions. Finally, I'd like to thank the staff and management who hosted our dinner at the Dog & Pony Restaurant. They did a fine job accommodating the varied needs of our group.


Access the materials below:

SLIDE DECK

VIDEO RECORDING

HANDOUTS

• Panelist biographies
• Tutorial on writing needs assessments
• Roundtable synopsis (from AMWA in 2018)
• Outcomes reporting resources
  

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