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Transcript

Milini Mingo, CHCP, PMP: Hello, and welcome back to the Alliance Podcast, Continuing Conversations. I'm your host, Milini Mingo, and today we're going to take a sneak peek at some of the sessions coming to the Alliance 2026 Annual Conference, which is scheduled for February 16-19 in Atlanta, Georgia, the very same city where the first Alliance Conference was held 50 years ago. This conference will bring together leaders, learners and innovators from across the health professions to explore emerging trends, share best practices and shape the future of healthcare education. If you're planning on attending, please check out the following sessions. And if you're still undecided, we hope this episode provides you with more insight into our education sessions. And please make sure to follow and subscribe to the Alliance Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Our first guest is Raja V Akanuru, whose presentation is titled, "From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs, Harnessing Generative AI for Faculty Disclosure Management Process." This session is a continuation of his last year's session called "Generative AI in Action, Five-Step Framework to Improve Faculty Disclosure Management Process." Raja, welcome to the Alliance Podcast!

Raja V Akunuru, MBA, CHCP: Thanks, Milini. Hello, everyone. Congratulations to the Alliance group as well, for the 50-year anniversary! It's a pleasure and an honor to be part of this esteemed network.

MM: All right, excellent. We're happy that you're here. So, let's go ahead and get started. So, your last year's presentation, which, by the way, was highly, highly rated, it discussed generative AI and faculty disclosure management. What encouraged you and your co-presenters to expand that framework and bring it back to the Alliance 2026?

RA: Yeah, great, great intro. We've had a lot of interest. In fact, I think our session was at the very end of one of the days, and more than 50 people stayed throughout the session, which was very, very encouraging for us. And during the sessions, we had so much of "aha" moment, where people were like, this is such an important topic for CE providers, and they were really thrilled by the concept of applying generative AI for faculty disclosure management. Obviously, it's not perfect, as with any other AI application, but the amount of leverage you can get with generative AI, a lot of people said it's way beyond what they expected it to be. So, we did want to continue our review and then present new findings to the group, and one of the things we are focusing on is how do we apply generative AI for more complex disclosure management cases? And how do we apply generative AI for bulk reviews in terms of several faculty disclosures. So those were the things we were not able to focus in the first meeting. A lot has changed. As you know, we've probably had eons of development in AI, so we are very, very excited to showcase what we learned, and then just have a great discussion with everyone else to share what we found out.

MM: Excellent. So, speaking of showcasing, this year you'll be diving into case studies and new AI advancements, such as prompt engineering. So, if you… if you don't mind, can you share one of the examples of how those tools can address real challenges in faculty disclosures, such as identifying conflicts or managing large databases?

RA: Absolutely. The cardinal principles we are focusing on as we're thinking about our session is scalability and security. So we want to make sure any application we are talking about hits at least both of these pillars, which are very, very important for healthcare continuing education. So, as a part of this, what we are exploring, are themes in terms of potentially using automated generative AI frameworks. It could be, like, a macro, it could be off-the-shelf tool. And apply that for reviewing faculty disclosures in bulk. So, for example, if a provider had, let's say, 100 faculty disclosures in an Excel sheet, all anonymized. How could we apply generative AI to get them from point A to point B, knowing that there is point C as well after that? It's not going to solve the entire gamut of the faculty disclosure process, but we are trying to see, could we apply the tools and help them look at bulk review of generative AI, of faculty disclosures. That's one. The second thing we are very interested in exploring is how could you take this from just showing what it can perform to actually doing things. And that's where the agent and the Gentec framework would be applicable. So in terms of doing it, what we want to showcase here is if there is a disclosure, can we notify people who are appropriate staff members that this is the disclosure? So, could we send an email? Could we update another system? So make AI do things rather than just talking about showing what it has to convey. So those are the two things. Bulk review and making AI do things, send notifications to people, are the two things we are very excited about.

MM: That's so… that implementation is so important, so thank you for explaining that. And, just the last thing, what is basically the biggest takeaway that you hope the attendees will gain after attending your session?

RA: Great question again. You really have a great list of questions, Milini. Thank you for helping us pour some of these discussions, too. The biggest takeaway we are hoping that learners would get, or attendees would get, is just that curious mindset of exploring what AI can do and also having a realistic boundaries in terms of what to expect from the solution. Oftentimes, we see attendees have a polarized view, that it's either going to be 100% accurate or 0% effective. And what we want to encourage everyone who are attending the session is have probably a more realistic view, where it's not going to solve all the things in the disclosure process. At the same time, it might not be… there may be a few steps that it'll help you streamline, depending on where you are. So, I think curious and realistic mindset is what we would expect our attendees to have. And I'm sure they have it, I'm just stating the obvious. 

MM: Excellent. I'm sure this is going to be a great session, and we're definitely looking forward to that session. So, Raja, thank you so much for coming to the podcast, really appreciate it.

RA: Thank you so much, Milini. Thank you to the Alliance team for having us.

MM: Excellent. And listeners, please make sure to check out Raj's session with co-presenters Steve Folstein and Danielle Milbauer. And remember, the session is titled, "From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs, Harnessing Generative AI for Faculty Disclosure Management Process," and it's scheduled for 11.15 a.m. on Tuesday, February 17. Our next guest is Sunali Wadera, who will be presenting the session, "Embracing Neurodiversity in the CME/CE Workplace, Fostering Strengths and Overcoming Hurdles." This session will explore the importance of creating neuro-inclusive work environments. Sunali, welcome to the Alliance Podcast.

Sunali Wadehra, MD: Thank you, Milini, for your warm welcome. As you said, I am Dr. Sunali Wadera, and I recently stepped into the role of Senior Scientific Editor at an oncology-focused med ed company, Research to Practice. In fact, today marks the completion of my first two weeks at this company. And prior to joining, I operated my own freelance medical writing, editing, and consulting business that specialized in CME/CE.

MM: Excellent. Congratulations on that! So, tell us what inspired you to present on neuro-inclusivity, especially within the CE professional space, and most importantly, why is this such a timely conversation for our particular field?

SW: Sure. So, similar to how I approach CME/CE programs, I noticed a gap. The diagnostic criteria for certain diagnoses, such as autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, has evolved over the years, and this has happened alongside a growing awareness of this and other conditions that may lead to someone identifying as neurodivergent. People are speaking up, and they're speaking out about their experiences, and I felt it was time to put together a formal session about it, to elevate their voices, and deepen the inclusivity in CMECE workplaces, and in the case of freelancing and consulting, in the space of collaboration as well.

MM: Excellent, and let's talk about some of the highlights of your session. Particularly, your session will be highlighting things such as how small, yet intentional changes in workflow and communication can empower neurodivergent professionals, could you at least share one example of a strategy that can make a meaningful difference, and how it can particularly strengthen CE programming?

SW: Sure. So, I am doing a lot of legwork prior to the session, such as connecting with experts to help improve the value of my content, and connecting with individuals who have held roles in the CME-CE space who identify as being neurodivergent. And as a spoiler, there will be video interviews and snippets of first-hand perspectives, and I also plan to connect with the audience and get their feedback so that our takeaways are practical and realistic. So, the development of these nuggets of wisdom are a work in progress, but that being said, I will say one thing, refining your communication strategies is an example of where we can make small, intentional and impactful shifts. I know this can mean a lot of things, and I know it can be accomplished in multiple ways, but in general, people don't always hear the message you are trying to deliver, and how you go about doing it matters. During the session, I will go deeper.

MM: Excellent. And you've already kind of talked about this, but if someone leaves your session, and they're ready to take one action, or even make one change. What would you want that to be?

SW: So, someone once said to me that if you meet one person with autism spectrum disorder, you have only met one person with autism spectrum disorder. In other words, it can present in a lot of different ways, and this isn't unique to ASD. It also applies to other conditions, such as ADHD, or various learning disabilities, etc.  So, it's impossible to know up front all the things you need to do to set people up for success in your work environment or outside collaborations, but awareness, in my opinion, goes very far. And so, as the session culminates, I hope that people leave with a broadened perspective and a mindset that encourages them to lead with curiosity, with empathy, with openness, so that when they notice things amongst their colleagues, rather than judgment, anger, frustration, that's what comes in instead. And I do think this alone goes a long, long way in improving the inclusivity of a work environment or collaboration.

MM: Wow, you know, I think your session is going to be a much-needed discussion. It's going to bring that discussion to the table, and I think it's going to be a great session. So, Sunali, thank you so much for talking with us about your session, and thank you so much for joining us.

SW: Sure, thank you.

MM: And audience, please make sure to check out Sunali's session, and again, it is titled, "Embracing Neurodiversity in the CME CE Workplace, Fostering Strengths and Overcoming Hurdles." And it is scheduled for 11.15 a.m. on Tuesday, February 17. So, our final guest is Stan J. Progoszewski, whose session is titled, "Saving Site Insights on a Series of QI Programs." This session will explore how CME can evolve into adaptive ecosystems that can capture insights, close feedback loops, and power continuous improvement across teams, institutions, and patient outcomes. Stan, welcome to the podcast.

Stan J. Pogroszewski, JD: Milini, thanks for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak today. As you said, I'm Pogroszewski, I'm the COO of GKB Med. I'm an attorney by training, and even though I'm an attorney, I do not like to speak, so thank you for having me and bearing with me. Dean Beals and I have been a part of the CME world for over 20 years now.

MM: Excellent. So, let's talk about what inspires you and your fellow presenters to explore why this particular session. Especially, why did you want to explore in a more comprehensive way, how to measure CME outcomes beyond the… what I call the big trio, the confidence, the confidence, the competency, and knowledge beyond that, especially in the context of quality improvement programs like Saving Site?

SP: Good question. We knew that traditional CME outcomes, like you said, confidence, competence, and knowledge, weren't enough to show that we were able to make a change and close a real-world gap. The gap we were looking at was that there's very low screening rates for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema in patients who have diabetes. So we needed to look beyond knowledge to prove that we were able to close this gap. The Saving Site program used education of clinicians, AI cameras, EPRIC order sets, patient navigators, and confidence  and knowledge alone wouldn't reflect the system-wide change. So, we wanted to demonstrate real screening improvements and validate that with claims-based control studies. So we had to pull EHR and claims data to prove that we're able to close the gap that we had identified.

MM: Okay, excellent. That is very interesting. I actually want you to go a little bit deeper, but not so deep that you're spoiling your session, right? So, to kind of build upon what you just said, what can CME professionals do to evolve their program, to be more dynamic, more insightful, especially when working with community health systems, data and partnerships?

SP: We realized that the traditional CME trifecta, as you mentioned, confidence, knowledge and competence weren't enough to demonstrate that there were we were closing real-world gaps in diabetes and DR and DME. We had identified that there was low screening rates in a number of different healthcare systems, and to date, we've been in about 5 different healthcare systems across the United States, where we've implemented this program.  So, what we've done is looked at the EHR data, pre-intervention, and then the EHR data post-intervention, to see if we were making changes. Now, SavingSight is a big program. It uses education of the clinicians, because they have to be aware of the disease state and know the different guidelines as to when they should be screening for, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. So, we educated the clinicians on that. We gave the… we inserted AI cameras into their practices so that we could eliminate a patient barrier to screening, so that they didn't have to go somewhere else to be screened. We created an epic order set because we believe that, epic reminders get dismissed too easily, and having an epic order set was the way to go. And that would be, you know, able to fulfill, and they wouldn't just be able to click out of the reminder. And then by adding a patient navigator to guide the patient from the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, because they could receive that diagnosis great at the screening, within seconds. They'll know whether or not they have a problem. And we embedded a patient navigator so that they could have someone help them get into an ophthalmologist and follow up on that. And though, while confidence and knowledge and confidence are great. And we did measure those. They weren't enough to show that it really reflected a system-wide change. When we went into One Health System, they identified that they had a 35% screening rate, and we thought, that's not bad. But when we actually looked at the EHR data, their screening rate was more like an 11-12%. So, we knew that we had to have, the EHR data there to prove that we were making an impact to screening.

MM: Excellent. Thank you for giving that information. So, based on that, when attendees walk out of your session, what is one insight or one idea you hope will stick with them, particularly?

SP: Interesting. It's kind of hard to put it into one. I think the big issue is that not every program needs EHR and claims data. But you need to identify what will work with that, and when it is appropriate to use EHR and claims data to go beyond the, traditional knowledge and competence. Because sometimes knowledge and competence change is more than enough, and that's what you really want to accomplish. So, I think you need to look at the program that you're trying to develop, and see if EHR and claims data will really help you further the goal of demonstrating that you've closed a knowledge gap.

MM: Thank you, Stan. I know that this session is going to be very insightful, and I thank you so much for talking with us about your session.

SP: Good, thank you.

MM: All right, and everyone, please make sure to check out Stan's session with co-presenters Rachel Deere, Stephen Hemowitz, and Karen D. Ruiz-Pordell, and Samantha Lansdale. The name of this session is "Saving Site, Insights on a Series of QI Programs" at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday, February 19. Thank you all for listening to this special episode of the Alliance Podcast. For more information about these sessions, please go to the website achehp.org. Also, make sure to follow and subscribe to the Alliance Podcast on your favorite podcast app.  And we hope that we will see you in Atlanta on February 16th through the 19th for the 50th anniversary of the Alliance Conference.