Medical research has the potential for far-reaching implications for individuals and society. Peer review remains the gold standard to ensure high-quality information. However, traditional journal submission involves an extensive process that is often costly, and time-consuming process.

Mark Riotto is the founder and president of The Research Post, a peer-reviewed, open-access publishing channel. Mark shares his insights on medical publishing and his campaign to promote a more visual experience for disseminating clinical data in a timely fashion. Mark considers the barriers to accessible, digestible information and we explore the advantages of the visual medium in an increasingly transparent publishing process.

Resources
The Nelson Memo: Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research

Connect with Mark
TheResearchPost
LinkedIn
Facebook: @theresearchpost

Connect with Alex
Podcast
LinkedIn
YouTube

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Sedentary lifestyles pose significant well-being challenges to western cultures. For example, prolonged periods at a desk affect posture, mental and physical health, and stress levels. Those of us working in continuing medical education and continuing education for health professionals are no exception to these risks and we can all benefit from a proactive approach to injury prevention. 

Eva Stabenow, a medical writer and German translator specializing in health and wellness communication, shares her insights with us today. After years of searching  Eva found relief from chronic work-related pain by re-patterning her movements with Pilates. When she realized many of her fellow desk workers were facing the same challenges, she set out to help them. Today, in addition to keeping a full-ish writing and translation schedule, she empowers people of all ages and abilities to move better, feel better and live better through targeted 1-1 sessions and affordable online group classes. 

In addition to helping people understand complex health content using plain language, Eva physically conveys her passion for health and health communication by teaching Pilates—a low-impact activity that balances strength with mobility and flexibility, so that you can move more freely and with more power. 

We discuss the following topics:

✔️ Who benefits from Pilates, and what are those benefits
✔️ Preconceptions of flexibility, mobility, and strength training
✔️ What to look for in a Pilates instructor
✔️ Pilates role in bridging the gap between physical therapy and return to regular workouts

Resources

Connect with Eva
You can find and follow her at Sunroom Pilates.
email: [email protected]

Message Eva and mention this podcast to try a free class!

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In this bonus episode of Write Medicine I talk with Ben Riggs about writing voice. Ben is Senior Communication Specialist for Kettering Health and author of Tell Them A Story.

He shares insights on three components that contribute to writing voice: level of formality, syntax and use of metaphor.

Connect with Ben
LinkedIn

Resources
Riggs B. Tell Them a Story. Using narrative nonfiction in your everyday writing. NY: Editorial Freelancers Association.  
WordRake: Writing Professionals on LinkedIn to Follow
Pepper Content:15 Freelance Writers You Should Follow on Linkedin for Inspiration
Clear Writing Q&A
Get Started on Your Writing Journey
The Importance of Powerful Storytelling in Writing

When we were talking about ideas/"leafmold," Ben mentioned an essay he wrote about walking his dog, Lewie. Here's the essay. 

Ben's recommendations for d books on writing: 

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Storytelling cultivates authentic connections and inspires curiosity in our audiences. At the same time, arousing emotions can enhance the learning experience in professional development and continuing education scenarios, like continuing medical education/continuing education in the health professions (CME/CEHP).

Today with Ben Riggs, author, writing coach, and Senior Communication Specialist for Kettering Health, Write Medicine considers how to use storytelling in the health professional education field.

We focus on the importance of understanding the constituent parts of the writing process and understanding audience needs by first defining who they are.

Connect with Ben
LinkedIn

Resources
Riggs B. Tell Them a Story. Using narrative nonfiction in your everyday writing. NY: Editorial Freelancers Association.  
WordRake: Writing Professionals on LinkedIn to Follow
Pepper Content:15 Freelance Writers You Should Follow on Linkedin for Inspiration
Clear Writing Q&A 
Get Started on Your Writing Journey
The Importance of Powerful Storytelling in Writing

When we were talking about ideas/"leafmold," Ben mentioned an essay he wrote about walking his dog, Lewie. Here's the essay. 

Ben's recommendations for d books on writing: 

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The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) encourages the inclusion of the patient perspective within CME activities. And patient cases are a great way to meet this recommendation.

Allison Armagan, Pharm.D. a content and education director specializing in creating interactive patient cases, joins me in this episode to talk about how to create multifaceted, dynamic patient cases for education activities. She talks about how targeted patient cases provide ways for clinicians to experience a "real-life" scenario, allow them to practice their skills in a consequence-free environment, address patient needs, and identify gaps in their knowledge and skills.

Designing patient cases involves a LOT of research, starting with patient advocacy websites, clinical guidelines, and recent literature. Allison emphasizes the importance of understanding the patient's voice, in addition to the disease state information, and of the power of the narrative. to engage audiences by telling a memorable and enjoyable story.

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed within the content are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Pfizer.

Resources
Episode 4 of Write Medicine focuses on writing patient cases with Scott Kober.
Allison mentioned I’m Aware That I’m Rare, a podcast on pulmonary hypertension.

Connect with Allison
LinkedIn

Connect with Alex
LinkedIn
Website

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Providers of accredited education for health professionals need to demonstrate that education activities have changed learner behavior and healthcare quality for the better. 

One of the best ways to show positive change is via outcomes reports. In episode 39 of Write Medicine, Medical Writer and Certified CME Professional Andrew Bowser ELS, CHCP talks about outcomes. Andy is the owner and lead developer with IconCME, a content development and consulting firm in Philadelphia. We discuss the format of reports, who the audiences are for outcomes reports, and how the results can help education evolve and improve. 

Andy describes the evolution of CME, outlines Moore’s Outcomes Framework for evaluating outcomes, and explores the increasing oversight of what constitutes accredited CME. We discuss the importance of narrative and telling a story within outcomes reporting and he recommends using visual cues to simplify the design and improve comprehension. 

He says, “there's a lot of interesting and creative ways you can portray the data and help people comprehend the outcomes of an activity.”

The following acronyms are mentioned in our conversation. 

Connect with Andy
IconCME
LinkedIn

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LinkedIn
Website

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Are you fearless in your marketing? 

If not, I got good news for you. 

Lori De Milto, author of The fearless Freelancer is talking with me on this episode of Write Medicine. We explore effective marketing for freelance writers and others working in medical communications, the importance of cultivating a freelance mindset, and how to embody grit, resilience, and confidence in your marketing. Wherever you are on your marketing journey, Lori will reassure you that you have the power to make your freelance future brighter by building relationships through networking. If you're in a marketing slump, or you don't know where to start, listen to the podcast, buy the book, and you will feel like and be in actuality, a fearless freelancer. 

Lori highlights the importance of strategic networking to create work opportunities and stay front of mind for prospective clients. As we all know, LinkedIn is key to strategic networking. Lori explains the value of an optimized LinkedIn account as a networking tool and for researching potential clients.

We touch on the importance of adopting a growth mindset approach that includes grit, resilience, and confidence.

Lori reassures us we all have the power to make our freelance future brighter by building relationships through networking.

Connect with Lori
e: [email protected]
Mighty Marketer
Lori De Milto Writer for Rent LLC
LinkedIn

Ready to level up your needs assessment writing strategy?
In Next Level Needs Assessments you’ll learn how to write lean, agile needs assessments with the help of deliberate practice, peer-to-peer discussion, and expert feedback.

Doors close January 31, 2023.

✴️ Grab your spot.✴️

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Continuing medical education planning usually includes a needs assessment. 

But sometimes it’s pretty challenging to get to the root cause of clinical or professional practice gaps, because they are often multifactorial.

That’s where root cause analysis comes in.

In episode 37 of Write Medicine, Greg Salinas, PhD, President of CE Outcomes, discusses his unique approach to needs assessments using root cause analysis. He emphasizes that the literature tells us that practice gaps exist (the what), but that we learn more about why gaps exist through direct outreach to clinicians and other stakeholders.

We explore what root cause analysis involves, its benefits for CME needs assessments, and how to approach it using conversational interviews and qualitative analysis.

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Crystal Herron, PhD, ELS founder of Redwood Ink, is an editor, educator and coach. In this episode, she shares her insights into building relationships through supportive, mindful collaboration. 

Crystal explains how cultivating a gentle and informative manner for feedback promotes longevity with clients. This mindful approach is evident in her informative website resources and newsletter, which are well worth checking out. 

Crystal advises cultivating a communication skills mindset, with self-awareness and self-regulation at the center through the following:

Crystal also counsels us to consider the emotions behind our writing and content creation. Understanding how our audience feels, not just their interests or knowledge base, allows us to form stronger connections with readers (and learners). Achieving this connection requires going beyond the text and cultivating direct interactions with readers and learners. 

Resources for Developing Communication Skills

Connect with Crystal
LinkedIn
Website
Newsletter
Freebies 

Crystal is offering a 5% discount for her  Scientific Writing Masterclass . Next session starts January 30. Registration closes January 23. The code does not expire.

Get the Code

Editing Software
Text Expander Shortcuts: save time with snippets
Autotext is built into Microsoft Word

Sponsors
CMEpalooza
WriteCME Pro

Production Team
Host: Alexandra Howson PhD
Show notes: Rhona Fraser BSc BVMS
Management: Golden Goose Creative

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Community health improvement and improving healthcare quality are both Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)  Accreditation with Commendation  criteria.

In this episode of Write Medicine, Heather Clemons, MS, MBA, ATC, CHCP shared how she and her colleagues at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, Mesa, California, mobilized quality improvement (QI), a community needs assessment, and continuing medical education (CME) to improve community health and clinical care.

As Heather describes, there are many facets to QI, including clinical analytics at the system level, performance improvement CME, and patient safety, which involves specialists to determine root cause analysis—which we’ll be exploring in Season 5 of the podcast.

We discuss how diversity, equality, and equity emerged as goals for Sharp Healthcare via a combination of an employee grassroots movement, California legislation, and a health system culture underpinned by an awareness of the social determinants of health and unconscious bias or stigma.

The confluence of these factors allowed Heather and her colleagues to build a unique CME and QI process, that included:

As Heather says, improving community health and clinical care involves,

meeting people where they’re at, seeing them for who they are, meeting their needs the way they need them met. And that’s different for everybody.

Resources

Abbreviations
ERAS: Enhanced recovery after surgery protocols
ABIM: American Board of Internal Medicine
PI-CME: Performance improvement continuing medical education

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