The Almanac team continues our live reporting of the 2026 Annual Conference at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. Read the Day 1 recap if you missed it. 

Tuesday morning launched with the first keynote of the week: The Alliance Past President Panel, featuring Marcia Jackson, PhD, George Mejicano, MD, MS, and Rebecca DeVivo, MPH, MSW, CHCP, and facilitated by outgoing Alliance President Audrie Tornow.  

The panelists started by sharing their first Alliance conference experience and what caused them to ultimately take on the Board role.  

Dr. Jackson, the first female president of the Alliance, reflected on joining in 1993, when she was just out of university. She quickly found a home in Alliance special societies, a theme for Dr. Mejicano and DeVivo as well. All noted first impressions of feeling incredibly welcomed by those around them. After their early moments of membership, all three took on more opportunities at the Alliance, ultimately being inspired to throw their hat in the ring for the Board by someone they looked up to. 

Tornow’s next question encouraged reflection on transformative moments during their time in the Board president role: 

• DeVivo, who stepped into the role during the pandemic, noted she was thankful to be part of a group that had made decisions putting them in a position to survive two pandemic conferences.
• Dr. Mejicano was president during a time full of scrutiny by the U.S. Senate. This was at the time of the “Sunshine Act,” and members were requesting more advocacy efforts. He noted the Alliance membership had to prove the difference their work makes to improving health. This led in part to the decision to change the association’s name. 
• Dr. Jackson’s time on the Board marked the beginning of the Sunshine Act, and conversations around whether to expand membership to include other health professionals, which led to the key moments of Dr. Mejicano’s term.  

In Tornow’s final question for the group, she asked about their hopes for the Alliance’s 100th Anniversary.  

• Dr. Mejicano hopes the Alliance will stay invested in evidence-based education and challenged everyone to consider perspectives even outside the health professions. 
• DeVivo hopes the Alliance remains a community where people can connect on a personal level — not just on social media.  
• Dr. Jackson noted that at the end of the day, people are social beings and hopes members will continue to come together to share, whatever continues to happen with artificial intelligence.  

Sessions With Impact: Notable Takeaways 

Almanac Editorial Board and team members attended a variety of informative sessions throughout the morning and afternoon. What follows are what stuck out to us most from selected sessions. If you are interested in one of the topics, help us encourage the presenters to share a follow-up article on the Almanac!  

Embracing Neurodiversity in the CME/CE Workplace: Fostering Strengths and Overcoming Hurdles 

Presenter: Sunali Wadhera 

What is beneficial for neurodivergent individuals is often beneficial for everyone; that was a central theme of this session. The presenter returned often to this idea: all people need understanding, empathy, and individualized support, whether they have ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Nonverbal Learning Disability, or are neurotypical. 

Despite efforts at inclusion, mental health is often unexplored in continuing professional development, a key reason the presenter chose to submit this topic. She shared both her own experience with neurodivergence and the experiences of friends and colleagues, all who described what they look for in a work environment — clear expectations, personalized guidance, consistent structure, psychological safety, and reduced sensory and environmental pressure. Again, these are things all individuals may benefit from. 

She also shared a few ways workplaces can be more accommodating to neurodivergent employees, such as allowing flexible or remote work, being open to individual idiosyncrasies, and recognizing that not everyone wants to participate in workplace social activities. Ultimately, she emphasized that working with people in ways that help them maximize their potential is what matters most. 

From Silos to Synergy: Lessons From the 2025 Healthcare Improvement Trailblazers Summit 

Presenters: Maureen Doyle-Scharff, PhD, Ted Singer, BA, CHCP; Suzette Miller; Marc Pesse; Natalie Sanfratellos, MPH, CHCP 
 
This session emphasized that no single entity can drive health care improvement alone — true impact requires aligned governance, trusted partnerships, patient involvement, local champions and thoughtful use of technology. Education is foundational, but it must be integrated into broader systems of care to influence meaningful change.  

Key takeaways included piloting and iterating with intention, designing with patients and communities in mind, building accountability frameworks and leveraging technology as an enabler to scale sustainable, collaborative solutions. 

reelCE: Transforming Medical Education Through Short-form Video 

Presenters: Angel R. Bales, MBA; Ted Seiler 

Continuing education must adapt to how clinicians actually learn today, noted the presenters behind reelCE™, a short-form, social media–based CE approach. Much of a clinician’s learning now happens between patient visits, and many already consume short-form content on mobile. Meeting them in those environments allows CE providers to extend evidence-based learning into clinicians’ daily workflow. 

Short videos — typically 60 to 90 seconds — can still deliver rigorous content when framed as concise clinical pearls from trusted peers. Microlearning research shows strong engagement in short format. For reelCE, the Medical Learning Institute partnered with medical nano influencers whose audiences are primarily other clinicians to create evidencebased reels that feel native to social platforms. The presenters emphasized that vertical video, lightly unscripted delivery and subtitles are all key, and onscreen presence matters more than follower count. 

The team uses a dualmetrics approach to evaluate impact, combining traditional CE outcomes with social engagement data such as comment depth, saves, shares and clickthroughs. Results show wide reach and strong interaction, though only a smaller subset of viewers ultimately pursue credit — supporting their position that shortform CE expands, rather than replaces, traditional models. 

This standing-room-only session generated substantial questions, particularly around accreditation on platforms that contain comments and advertising. The presenters clarified that YouTube allows ads to be disabled for this type of content and that most platforms do not place ads on very short videos. They also rely on contracts with creators to monitor and remove questionable comments.  

Overall, the presenters framed short-form video CE as a practical response to shifting clinician behavior, offering a way to deliver credible, accessible education within the spaces where clinicians are already learning. 

Why Are We Talking About Outcomes When We Could Be Talking About Impact 

Presenter: Suzanne Murray 
 
This thought-provoking session challenged us to rethink how we define and measure success in medical education. While outcomes are typically short-term, predefined results tied to specific interventions, impact reflects longer-term performance improvement and system-level change that affects patients.  

The discussion reinforced that education is a process — not an event — and that meaningful change depends on thoughtful design, effective implementation, baseline data, and trust in measurement. Ultimately, the goal is not just improved knowledge or confidence, but measurable impact on patient care and health systems. 

All That Glitters: Celebrating the Alliance’s 50th Anniversary 

Day 2 ended with a black-and-gold-themed party to celebrate 50 years of our community. Members showed up in their fanciest outfits, red carpet ready! The night featured connection, dancing, a variety of appetizers and, deliciously, espresso martinis. 

Disclosure: Artificial intelligence was leveraged in this article to refine session takeaways.