“I perform consulting to larger pharmaceutical companies and have been involved in defining and developing new systems and processes to capture and report on the detail required by both state and federal [tracking physician spend] mandates. I have generally advised my clients to reduce the impact of new systems or processes by leveraging the additional data being collected for market analytics ... So while most companies see this as pure risk mitigation, some are capitalizing on it as a means to finally gain something akin to a 360-degree view of their customers. Quantifying the benefit may be difficult, but needless to say, it helps make swallowing the cost a little easier.” • Neil Martinez, commenting on a post outlining the estimated costs of implementing the final rule of the Sunshine Act—$269 millionin the first year and $180 million annually thereafter—on the Policy and Medicine blog
“[Ask learners] “What do you hope to change as a result of this activity?”—Get them thinking.” • @Savvy_CME’s response to the question of how to motivate healthcare providers to become more engaged and motivated learners on a January session of the weekly #CMEChat, held Mondays at 11 am EST on Twitter
"We shouldn’t spend our time attempting to change the mindsets of folks who already have their minds made up about what independent, accredited education is and instead focus on elevating the standards of both the education and the educators. As CME continues to evolve it must do so in parallel with the profession of medicine. In fact, the word ‘independent’ might be a misnomer—if medicine is a social endeavor grounded in science then it’s actually ‘interdependent,’ meaning we need close cooperation of all the stakeholders in this vast network, with each one taking personal responsibility for their contributions in an ethical manner.” • Greselda Butler, CCMEP, in a discussion on the Continuing Medical Education LinkedIn group about an article about what the Sunshine Act means for healthcare.
“This is the future of CME—advances in technology that make sharing educational content with an open-ended number of potential learners easier, faster, and cheaper (much, much cheaper). Why should we pay tens of thousands of dollars for a video crew to record a presentation when someone armed with only a laptop can do a pretty decent job for free? Yes, the quality of video and audio isn’t the same, but: 1) does that really matter for something like this? (side note: No. If your content is good, people will watch.) and; 2) the quality is only going to improve. It always does.
My advice? Learn how to do a Google Hangout. Learn how to create a screencast. Learn how to use WordPress to build a blog or Web site. These—along with many others—are the tools the next generation (and current one, too!) of CME professionals will need to know how to use. Learn how to use them or risk being left behind. ” • Derek Warnick on his Confessions of a
Medical Educator blog
“We appreciate that CMS recognizes the importance of accredited continuing education and the value of the ACCME Standards in safeguarding the independence of accredited continuing education.” • Accreditation Council for CME President and Chief Executive Officer Murray Kopelow, MD, discussing in a video on the ACCME Web site how the Sunshine Act final rule’s exclusion of accredited CME validates the Standards for Commercial Support