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Transcript

Audrie Tornow, CHCP, FACEHP: Hello and welcome back to the Alliance Podcast, Continuing Conversations. I'm Audrie Tornow, your 2025 Alliance President. Joining me today is Alliance Conference Chair Greselda Butler. She and her co-chair Damon Marquis have been hard at work with the committee getting everything ready for our upcoming 2026 Alliance Annual Conference, it's taking place from February the 16th through the 19th in Atlanta, the home of the first-ever Alliance Conference. Welcome to the podcast.

Greselda Butler, CCEP, FACEHP: Thank you, Audrie. I'm so pleased to be here with you.

AT: I am excited for us to get to talk today and share with all of our members just some about the planning and some about what they can expect about the upcoming conference. So, are you ready?

GB: I am ready.

AT: OK, great. Because I want to start with your perspective on things. What did the CME/CPD environment look like when you entered the field? I know it was very different for me.

GB: I'm certain that everyone who's in this profession and has been for the last 20 to 30 years could give you a different story. I began on the non-profit side of things, and because I was working in non-profit, it probably looked very different from me for me than it did for everybody else. I was working for a non-profit focused in long-term care. I did not work at all with supporters. I received funding from the state and sometimes from medical specialty societies or healthcare professional organizations. And the one thing that shifted for me after my first few years working in non-profit when I transitioned to a for-profit medical education company. I thought it was like the wild, wild west. I was working in promotional medical education. I was working in grant-funded education, but I was talking to the marketing director about all of it. And that sounds completely foreign right now, right? But that was the way it worked. I worked with the brand teams directly and sometimes I was asked to create an idea, you know, within like a twenty-four hour period, come up with an educational program in twenty-four hours. And because we've got these extra dollars, I mean, these things sound odd to our ears now, but it was a different group of stakeholders at the time. And because it was a different group of stakeholders, it was the norm until that norm shifted.

AT: Yeah, I would be right with you. For me, my entry point was 1999 and the first non-accredited medical education company I worked with, where I did both investigator meetings and satellite symposia. And I wouldn't say that there were blurred lines; there were just no lines. You were able to stay in both lanes. And so, when we think about what the world looks like now from a compliance perspective, I'm envisioning everyone listening to this who's in a current compliance role. We were just making them cringe a lot. But that is something to say for 25 years of progress.

GB: Yeah. That is exactly right. It was heavily customer-centric, the customer being the pharmaceutical company and thankfully, things shifted. Some may say that initially the pendulum swung very, very far to the opposite side and since then, what we've had is compliance requirements of CE/CPD and still be highly creative and thoughtful and nuanced in your approach.

AT: I love that because it kind of leads us into our next question of what were some of the more pivotal moments in our CME and CPD development over the years? I mean, I could think of one being the Sunshine Act, which caused everybody to take a look internally, really, really quickly and figure out where do we stand in terms of having to report on this.

GB: Absolutely. The Sunshine Act was pivotal and it stretched out over such a long period of time that I think it gave everybody agita just waiting to see what the final outcome of the Sunshine Act would be, so that when it finally happened, it was, maybe less shocking and maybe in fact that made it more easily integrated into processes. But the other thing that I will mention is in 2009, when it became a requirement to separate your organizations. For instance, if you worked for an organization that did both promotional and grant-based education, you had to show separate, completely separate organizations doing different things and no crossover between the resources and employees, et cetera. And I'll mention that specifically because the organization that I worked for at the time, which was a huge healthcare communications company, said, you know what? This isn't worth it to us. And they closed the grant division and I was so shocked at that and I saw a number of similar things happening across other companies as well.

AT: I would say the same thing. The organization that I was with as well had to defend the firewall between our independent and promotional staffing and what were those shared resources and the end result was that they were not able to to do it successfully enough to maintain the viability of the organization long term. And so one of those other networking things that happens for all of us is we all disperse to other companies and met tons of other individuals.

GB: Exactly. And it it probably, you know, we we don't think about it maybe as often, but it probably also helped shape industry in ways we don't think about, which is many companies, especially large healthcare communications companies had both a grant-based side of the business and they had a traditional marketing and promotional side of the business. And when those grant-based parts of the organization went away, we saw a lot of shuffling around of individuals who previously had been maybe comfortable doing both, having to make a decision career wise about whether or not they wanted to stay on the grant-funded education side or the promotional side. And I think that that was pivotal because we saw some of those folks with storied credentials in marketing and promotional sides of things with pharma and and science and industry move into a space that maybe was a little less familiar, but perhaps a little more interesting and creative.

AT: Yes, because I think it made us re-envision what we had been doing and maybe there was a little bit of PTSD from what we had just been through. And I think it kind of heightened for all of us ensuring that when we were developing things, there was a little bit more independence on the independent side. And I also think that because with a lot of that change came a distancing from information that had been flowing directly, I feel like we had more conversations with our faculty members in a much richer way because they were now our collaborators more than they I think had been given the opportunity prior to that.

GB: And I also think that because with a lot of that change came a distancing from information that had been flowing directly, I feel like we had more conversations with our faculty members in a much richer way because they were now our collaborators more than they I think had been given the opportunity prior to that done before and I think that that helped to start to build our own knowledge base and strengthen our communication styles as well because in the past there had always been sort of a go-between and I think that that maybe is also the beginning of us envisioning how medical education could really be transformative when we weren't constrained by customer requests and goals.

AT: Yes, really. I think the thinking outside the box became available to us so much more because we weren't worried about I think a different approval process. We we now had standards and guidelines for ensuring we stayed independent, but I think within that we have been given that freedom to really envision education in a meaningful way without too many constraints. So I I happen to like that a lot. So now we kind of get a little bit more big picture here on where where do you feel or where do we feel CME and CPD is heading over the next 50 years and maybe how does the upcoming conference reflect how CME and CPD are developed?

GB: That's a great question, Audrie. I think we've been seeing what maybe looked like a trend at the very beginning, but is now clearly the standard, the norm for the way things are are changing and evolving.
And what I mean by that is that for the CE/CPD professional, we're becoming more of learning architects. Some of us are, some of us are becoming more data strategists. Some of us are partners in change management, helping to re-envision the approaches that our organizations will take and the niches that we decided we want to be in when it comes to designing, delivering, implementing and or measuring continuing education. Many of us have become more integrators of technology and for someone like me, I found myself leaning into health systems, science and equity, and having that be more of a focus of what I want to do when it comes to education. And all of those things, I think perfectly mirror what's happening in the learning environment for the practicing clinician. Indeed, I think it's happening for the graduate level and postgraduate level clinician as well, where they're having to envision themselves as part of a more modernized approach, moving away from activities to really competency-based learning models beyond microlearning and beyond case-based, developing mastery in core areas of interest in their core areas of study. Understanding data that's not just clinical data, but data that may come from apps and smart tools, how AI is being integrated into the way that they're reviewing their patient data and really beginning to get comfortable with that integration of technology in a way that they didn't have to before, but that they can't deny at this point it's coming, and then certainly maybe the last thing I'll say that I think is really important is the way in which that's impacting their collaborations cross-functionally within their teams. So more team-based education and training and facilitation of education through teams, so that people are aligned, so that everyone who's part of that healthcare workflow can support the patient. And that's well beyond physicians and nurses. You're talking pharmacy, you're talking social work, you're talking patient navigators, and you're talking the patients themselves and or their care partner. And I think that those are some important changes and evolutions that are certainly not trends. They're here to stay.

AT: Yeah, and I would say from reviewing the annual conference abstracts that are available, sessions that are available for our attendees, all of the items you just mentioned, they all have representation as part of the content that's available to them. It clearly AI it's not going anywhere. We know we have a multitude of sessions, but I feel so many of the other topics you just raised all have the opportunities to have a little bit of a deep dive at the conference.

GB: I agree that the core content, the abstracts that were submitted were first and foremost of increasingly high quality. I've had the privilege of of being on the conference committee as the vice chair, for 2025 and now chair for this year. And the thing that is remarkable to me is that every time we ask our members to step up their games to be even more thoughtful and focused about what's happening right now, but also think about what will impact the practicing clinician, the healthcare provider in the next 5 to 10 years and try to get ahead of it when we think about the design of the education, when we think about how we're measuring that education. We think about how to connect and engage with learners. I see that reflected in the content and I agree with you across all of the learning domains and topics that are being covered. You'll see and hear about some of everything I mentioned and more than that as well. I also want to say that I'm seeing an opportunity for an increase in practice is something that I think is evolving understanding education research and how to conduct it and how to take the data that we actually have and turn it into usable, extractable insights that truly impact patient care in a measurable way and that are replicable is something that I see folks trying to focus on more readily. And I think that's going to be key to our profession moving forward, but also key to the evolving nature of annual conferences.

AT: I love that. Now, given that this year is going to be marking the 50th anniversary for the Alliance, how did this milestone, as we're kind of evolving through time, how did that impact the planning process and the themes for the conference? And I know we've both have so many conversations about that.

GB: We have. I mean, you know, you put together a 50th anniversary task force and we started off thinking about the theme for the annual conference through the lens of what can we learn from the past? That we can bring into the present that will help prepare us for the future. I mean, 50th anniversary holds with it such weight when we think about your first question, you know, what was this profession 20 or 30 years ago, or in this case 50 years ago, and how is it evolved? Who were the key players and bringing as much of our history into the discussion? Helping us to frame out what our present looks like and how we arrived at where we're at so that we could think more critically and thoughtfully about what our future looks like. That was the entire framework for the design and development of of this year's annual conference and the theme.

AT: Yeah. And I think, you know, part of part of what we're hoping to share with everyone today is a little bit about the attendee experience. So I would love to walk them through thematically our our three days of the conference and our three keynotes and and how we're presenting those. So would you like to to take a to start? Start off with day one or day two you want me to.

GB: You know, I I would be remiss if I didn't say that we have an incredible pre-conference available to attendees as well. So for folks who are looking for for awesome pre-conference sessions, really deep dives as well as the member section meetings, opportunities to engage directly with folks who are part of your members section. And then of course we have a wonderful opportunity to engage and be together with the posters and poster reception immediately after that. So I know that that's the pre-conference technically, but I think we've set ourselves up for success from that very first day. So I'd be remiss if I didn't say that.

AT: No, thank you for bringing me back to that because actually I I think you also saw an incredible number of poster abstracts come through and I know we are going to have a larger poster exhibition this year than we even did last year.

GB: Exactly. And I think that that's so important because poster development, poster writing, and the number of folks who are interested in having their data presented as a poster is really an optimal time for us to slow down and understand the kind of work, the quality of content that's being developed by by members and hear directly from them about their process, their thoughts about the work that they've developed and really be inspired, get ideas, but also just showcase how hard they've worked to put together this kind of quality content. So I love that. I'm going to ask you as the person who's going to moderate day one, maybe you want to tell us what we have to look forward to for the day one keynote?

AT: You know, I think as we kind of spoke about learning from everything that we've been through, I was very happy to have the support of the committee and collecting some of our amazing past presidents to participate and we will be hearing from Dave Davis from Marcia Jackson, from George Mejicano and Rebecca Davivo, all joining us and sharing not only insights from their professional careers, but also their time and leadership within the Alliance in looking at the members who have changed over time, the membership makeup as well as the environmental challenges that we have endured and the things that we have, I think we're gonna, we're gonna work on highlighting just 50 years goes within the blink of an eye, but there's so much that we've accomplished and what their hopes and wishes are for our organization in supporting our members in the upcoming 50 years and so tremendously excited to have them join us. We've got a lot of interactivity planned and, you know, knowing that there's a full conference coming after, really hoping to connect the members and get them excited and energized to head off into three days of sessions.

GB: I love that. Yeah, the idea of bringing past presidents together and having a conversation moderated by our current president and then ceremoniously passing the gavel to our incoming president and Vince, it's very special. I think for folks who haven't been around and maybe as long as we have, it will be a really special moment. Also very insightful, I think very funny. I think there are lots of lessons to be learned because leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum. And while we are busy, you know, doing the work that we do on a day-to-day basis and loving our profession, the presidents were navigating the world. The world's still happening around us, right? The healthcare landscape's still evolving and changing. They're going to talk about some key publications and some major world events that took place during their tenures. And I can't wait for folks to hear this story. Presidents are people, right? They're they have lived experience that they can share, but they also give us context and they give us hope. You can navigate through anything and it shows the resilience of our profession as well. So excited about that. So day one's going to be phenomenal. Day two, I think is sort of the perfect next step. So we'll hear about the past and we'll also hopefully hear from our past presidents about, you know, their thoughts about how we move our profession forward. But on day two, we're going to be hearing from Doctor John White. John White is the CEO of the American Medical Association. I know our listeners will be very familiar with the AMA, the largest US-based organization of physicians and physicians in training member-based organization and he has a vision. You know, as the new CEO, he has a a vision for the AM A going forward. And that vision, just as we talked about our past presidents, needs to reflect the current environment in which clinicians are expected to operate the current healthcare landscape and very importantly, as we all know, AMAPRA category one credits are the most common accreditation that folks are usually seeking and we want to understand not just what does that mean from a a credit perspective, but is that the future of the AMA? Is that still what's needed or is there potential for if evolution that looks different from what we're used to and what is our readiness to receive change and evolution? So definitely looking forward to hearing from Doctor White. And then for those of you who have been under a rock and not paying attention or just unfamiliar, day three is Doctor Mike. If you don't know Doctor Mike. Google Doctor Mike. I mean copilot Doctor Mike, ChatGPT Doctor Mike, whatever it is you have access to, do it so that you can learn a little something about this clinician, who I think is quite extraordinary. He is a young practicing clinician, currently practicing as a family medicine clinician, and he is a social media juggernaut and that is very intentional. So we didn't just bring him for for that though, although controversy is also very interesting to me. I like that little. One of the reasons why we brought Dr. Mike in is because he brings a young practicing clinician perspective on what education and quality education looks like and means to him, what he's interested in, what engages him, what he considers valuable, but he's also someone who's navigating again the current environment and landscape, and there's a lot of discussion around dis and misinformation nowadays and a lot of access to information that patients and consumers have. And so we're going to talk to him a little bit about his perspective on how to how do you deal with that as a clinician and what is the role of a healthcare educator, a CE or CPD professional in helping clinicians to navigate that really sort of bit of a minefield that's out there and do it with empathy and with a core focus obviously on the highest level of clinical care they can provide. So looking forward to hearing from Doctor Mike and getting his perspective and luckily we'll be hearing from you too because there's going to be an opportunity for you to submit your own questions as members and hopefully get them answered by Dr. Mike.

AT: I'm very excited you know for for the opportunities for our members. I think specifically to hear from these individuals who are helping to pave the way of where we're headed in terms of an education designed to support the challenges of today's clinicians. But I think the reality too of asking those questions and and getting a better understanding of what we can do to design in a in a day where the technology is evolving rapidly, where patients are becoming more a part of the shared decision making process, but they have to question the integrity of the information that they're gathering because they are coming in very informed. But but what are the sources that they're utilizing? And then how do we help to put tools in the hands of both of our patients and clinicians to make the best treatment decisions they can when, you know, when when they hit these obstacles?

GB: I love that. I love the way you put that, Audrie. Maybe the the last thing I'll say about this and you just made me think about it. We do have a responsibility as professionals to really think about and then take action on, how do we create repositories of validated data as we start to see data sources become less available? Some of the data sources that we typically tap into government websites and things of that nature that may or may not be accessible or available to us, or may not be available to you anymore. We have a plethora of information at our fingertips and do we also have a responsibility there to make sure that validated, up-to-date, just-in-time data are easily accessible, not for credit necessarily, but because they need access to that information.

AT: Yeah, very, very much. So I think kind of a closing note just to share in terms of an attendee experience, what are the things you do to prepare for the conference and then what are the things you do when you get home from the conference?

GB: I love that you asked me that, so it keeps evolving year by year, but it sounds really corny. But I don't go to any meeting without creating a preparatory document. I love notebooks. I can be very analog sometimes, which I don't mind at all because I find that when I'm writing things out, I go back and I reference, I flag things. But technology is evolving and I'm looking forward to using my remarkable, which is a lovely piece of technology that helped me capture moments in time. Help me capture ideas that come to me. Help me capture salient points from the sessions that I plan to attend, and help me start thinking differently about what I can bring to this profession going forward. So I always prepare in advance, even if it's just a couple of days in advance. Start by writing down what sessions do I absolutely have to get to and then what are the nice to haves, right? Because there are concurrent sessions and no, you won't be able to attend every session, but really prioritize. Do you have goals tied to these sessions meaning, would it benefit you to attend a session because it aligns to an individual development plan that you have within your organization or organizational goals that need to be achieved? Will you benefit from attending to help your organization or to help you individually grow in the profession? Always think about that, right? That's something that you can always consider and if you're uncertain, I'm really pleased to be able to say that for the second year we're going to bring back conference concierge where if you stop by on day one, which is the 17th, if you stop by the Conference Concierge, which will be located in a central area, I'll be there. Perhaps some of the other Alliance Annual Conference Committee members will be there to help you sort of identify what sessions might align to your interests or needs, or to help you build a group of sessions over the course of three days that you can follow. Of course, you can mix it up at any time, but we want to be able to give you support in that way, because we have the years of experience behind us, but also because we know the agenda best and want to be able to guide you along on the things that are of greatest interest to you. So there's that. And then coming home. I always recommend when you come home from a conference, pull out the notebooks, pull out the notes, pull out the business cards, try to capture them electronically, even if it's just you taking a picture of the pages and getting them uploaded into a file or a folder, because there's so many technologies that will help you transcribe them into an electronic document or some other resource that you can refer to immediately. Pull out the things that you think you can take action on right away, or the things that you had the most questions on that you can float by your organization or team if you're a leader and you had attendees come to the annual conference, give them an opportunity to talk about what they got out of it and why it was relevant and why it was important. Going to this conference shouldn't be a oh, well, you were just there and now we're back and that all happened, but there's nothing to come of it.Make sure they understand that there's an end goal to to attending, and that end goal is to gather their feedback and ideas. Understand if you're on the right track in terms of your organizational goals and objectives, and if there are new things that can be added, maybe there's some upskilling or opportunities for growth and development within teams or individual growth and development

AT: Yes.I think that ensuring that the information that you collect is shared with your team, knowing that budgets are tight and sometimes entire teams can't go, is the best way to have a successful year when you can share the resources and and I think that has always been very, very helpful for any of the organizations who can make the commitment to support some of their employees in attending.

GB: Absolutely. You're right. You've got to make the most of those dollars. We know that can be scarce, and individuals who can't go can be made to feel like they were a part of it when you can bring back information and ideas or resources that might have been shared in sessions and have a real discussion about it. I always suggest to a post-mortem for for anything. That's a morbid way to put it. The post hoc discussion post-mortem sounds really sad. So no post hoc discussion, post conference, sit down as a team and talk about what you got out of it. Talk about what you didn't get out of it that you had hoped to get out of it, and be sure to share that in the evaluations and feedback as well, because Damon is my vice chair for this year and he is looking to ensure that 2027 is as targeted and as thoughtful in its design as 2026 is not better. So your feedback is key.

AT: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I want to thank you for joining me in the discussion today. As we wrap up, do you have any recommendations for people making the most of their time in Atlanta if they just in general?

GB: Step outside. Step away from the conference when you can get a moment right. Don't leave any great sessions that you're in, but Atlanta has a lot to do if you want to do something in advance before you come, in addition to preparing properly. Check out what's happening in Atlanta. Atlanta has a ton of history. There's so much incredible history in Atlanta, and you know there's fun things to do. Make sure that you make time for fun, right? This is meant to be an entire experience, and we already have some fun social things planned within the agenda, but outside of the conference there, there's plenty of things going on and you might find that there's some fun things you want to get up to. So yeah, I always say step away sometimes, right? So that when you come back, you're refreshed and renewed and you're ready to take on those next sessions.

AT: I love that I will throw in there for everybody to remember to bring some comfy shoes because it's a few long days, but we are tremendously excited to have you all join us for the 2026 annual conference coming up in just a little bit. It's getting here really, really quickly. And if you are still on the fence about registering, please go online and check out all of the pre-conference opportunities that Greselda mentioned earlier, as well as our award ceremony and welcome reception and poster reception on Monday the 16th.On Tuesday the 17th, don't forget you have the opportunity to sign up for the 5K charity walk run on and that evening will be our past president's reception as well as our black and gold anniversary party. So we're excited to spend some time unplugging from the day jobs and just celebrating with one another, Wednesday the 18th includes the opportunity for sunrise yoga for all of the early birds, and we will have a strong day on Thursday the 19th, wrapping up with some fun and entertainment for our final session. That information will follow this podcast, but otherwise, I want to thank you again for your time today and for all of your work and the committee's work on planning what we know will be an amazing experience for our members.

GB: So looking forward to it all. This has been an honor. I always love to be in conversation with you, Audrie, and being chair has really been one of the most gratifying volunteer opportunities I've had with the Alliance. So thank you.

AT: Thank you for saying yes. And with that, we thank all of you for tuning in and look forward to to seeing you all very, very soon in Atlanta.

GB: Always. Take care everyone!