In This Issue

• Greetings from Jeff and Pat
• News: Impact on Clinical Behavior of Face-to-Face Continuing Medical Education Blended with Online Spaced Education: A Randomized Controlled Trial
• More News: Physician Shares Likes, Dislikes About Live Medical Meetings
• The Scoop on CME: The Bottom Line Part II: Income

It seems we have waited an extremely long time for the warm weather to arrive and with it our thoughts turn to summer vacation. Some of you have already picked your destination, and booked your tickets with the countdown to vacation on.  For some people, summer vacation means, “stay-cation” in Rochester. Which, when you think about it, isn’t so bad.  Year around Rochester has a lot to offer – which makes this a great location for CME conferences.

Increasingly, luxury destination spots for national and international conferences are being frowned upon by companies providing educational grants. This means that popular tropic or large metro destinations may not help you justify the need for monies given to your educational conference.  If you have considered holding a regional, national or international CME conference, consider holding it in Rochester.

Rochester's location is hard to beat. Access to the Flower City is easily manageable for national and international travelers. Downtime and networking opportunities before, during, or after a conference can be spent enjoying the Art and Music scene (MAG, Eastman Theatre), sports (Red Wings, Rhinos, Amerks), local attractions such as the George Eastman House, the Finger Lakes wine country, and a large number of top-rated golf courses and restaurants.

Our area has top-rated facilities for any conference need.  Our own conference center at the medical center can host up to 220 people. There are larger facilities at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, as well as a variety of hotel spaces such as Woodcliffe, the Del Monte Lodge and the Hyatt Regency.  Most of the conference centers in Rochester can support any number of technological needs.

While education is the primary goal for a conference, the attractions throughout the city of Rochester and surrounding area could certainly be a draw for attendees.

If you have questions about presenting a CME conference or are interested in finding out more information, please contact us!

Jeffrey M. Lyness, MD
Medical Director for Continuing Medical Education (CME)
585-275-4392
Jeffrey_Lyness@urmc.rochester.edu

Patrick H. Murphy
Director, Continuing Professional Education
585-275-4392
PatrickH_Murphy@urmc.rochester.edu

News

Impact on Clinical Behavior of Face-to-Face Continuing Medical Education Blended with Online Spaced Education: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Online spaced education following a live CME course can significantly increase the impact of face-to-face course on providers' self-reported global clinical behaviors.

Seventy-four percent of participants (181/246) completed the SE program. Of these 97% (171/181) submitted the behavior change survey. Across 4 clinical topics, providers who received SE reported significantly greater change in their global clinical behaviors as a result of the CME program.

Ninety-seven percent (175/179) requested to participate in future SE supplements to live CME courses. Eighty-six percent (156/179) agreed or strongly agreed that the SE program enhanced the impact of the live CME conference.

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More News

Physician Shares Likes, Dislikes About Live Medical Meetings
by: Betsy Blair

Stefan Schneeberger, MD, an Austrian transplant surgeon, spoke about the benefits of live medical meetings at a recent conference that garnered opinions from a variety of stakeholders about the future of global meetings, both live and virtual. Schneeberger addressed Association Day attendees at IMEX, the exhibition that represents the worldwide...

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Please note: The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect the opinions of the UR Office of Continuing Professional Education.

The Scoop on CME

The Bottom Line Part II: Income
by: Melissa Newcomb, MBA, CCMEP, Assistant Director for Certification

In the last issue, we discussed financial impact of activity logistics on your conference's bottom line. In this issue, we will discuss the hot topic of income!

So where will the money come from to pay for your activity? Some of our readers may remember a time when a call to a pharmaceutical company representative would be the end of this article. Those days, however, are long gone. Increasingly stringent regulations from the FDA and OIG have forced commercial interests and CME providers to create firewalls that clearly separate marketing from education. The cost of educational activities should largely come from the participants through registration fees. Before you scale back or compromise your vision because the cost to participants seems prohibitive, please know that commercial support, if handled appropriately (according to ACCME Standards for Commercial Support) is still a viable option.

Requesting grant funding from a commercial entity is mainly based on the education planning completed at the beginning of the activity planning process. Many commercial supporters have implemented online processes to accept applications for unrestricted educational grants that mirror the CME application process. With hundreds of grant applications submitted monthly, most companies today ask why they should provide support for traditional, knowledge-based, lecture only meetings. Identifying relevant practice gaps, having a well documented needs assessment, and planning measurable outcomes from innovative and interactive educational activities, will go very far in getting your request recognized by the companies’ CME reviewers.

Very detailed budgets are expected in the educational grant submission process. These budgets are carefully reviewed to ensure that all monies provided will be dedicated to the specific event for which they are requested. CME activities are expected to produce practice outcomes, not profits. Additionally, many companies now have Post Activity Reconciliation processes where activity providers are required to return any “profits” proportionate to the amount of the grant awarded to the activity. For companies to continue to support as many high-quality, outcomes-producing activities as possible and maintain compliance with federal regulations, they cannot allow institutions to keep “extra” funds to use for other activities not related to the educational meeting. Depending on the type of activity you have in mind, In-Kind Support (non-monetary contributions given by a commercial interest) could provide some relief from the cost burden. For instance, if you are planning a skills-based workshop, it could be useful to work with a product manufacturer to donate the machines on which the learners can practice the skills being discussed.

Selling exhibit space is another option for obtaining additional funding. Exhibits are considered a promotional activity which means that in addition to keeping exhibit requests separate from educational grant requests, the exhibits themselves must be kept entirely separate from the educational aspects of the event. The tables must be located in a different room from the educational sessions and companies who provide educational grants are not entitled to exhibit space. These firewalls are part of the PhRMA Code as well as the CME guidelines.