There were a couple of fairly big announcements made at the 23rd Annual Conference of the National Task Force on CME Provider/Industry Collaboration last week, a gathering of around 250 continuing medical educators and pharmaceutical professionals, with some assorted consultants and companies thrown into the mix.
One came at the very end, when Bob Orsetti, MA, FACME, CCMEP, Editor at CE Measure—The Journal of Outcomes Measurement in Continuing Healthcare Education, announced that the American Medical Association has refocused its strategic plan and, effective October 31, will no longer provide administrative support to the Task Force. The Task Force is now actively seeking viable organizations to take over, so if you know of any that would be appropriate, please let them know. He also acknowledged the AMA for its 23 years of support, and expressed the hope that the AMA will continue to send representatives to the annual meeting.
Another change is happening over at the National Commission for Certification of CME Professionals (NC-CME), which held a nice ceremony Thursday night for the 2012 new holders of the Certified CME Professionals designation (I'd estimate that about a third of this year's crop of 27 were able to come get their pins and certificates in person. Jack Kues, PhD, CCMEP, said at the ceremony that there are now more than 400 CCMEPs).
Anyway, Judy Ribble, PhD, CCMEP, who has been the executive director of the NC-CME for the past five years, will be retiring. But don't worry, because her successor—Melinda Steele, MEd, CCMEP, a very familiar face to pretty much everyone in CME—is sure to be able to pick up where Judy is leaving off and take the organization to the next level. As Melinda said, "I'm honored to move in this direction and try to fill some really big shoes."