Write Medicine

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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Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

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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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

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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We're getting a little meta here on Write Medicine—this is a podcast episode on the value of podcasts 😉

Did you know that podcasts are increasing in popularity in continuing healthcare education?

As I was researching this episode, I was astounded to see the enormous growth in the number of continuing education podcasts, and the number of clinicians using podcasts as part of their formal and informal learning. As of 2019, the last year for which I could find figures, there were 200 medical podcasts available online covering 19 specialties and almost 14,000 episodes. 

And while many podcasts now offer CME and maintenance of certification credits through organizations like the American College of Physicians and the Society of Hospital Medicine, they are still relatively under-used as a CME format.

On this episode of Write Medicine I talk with Mike Donoghue, an enthusiastic podcast consumer who co-founded  ConveyMED after recognizing that podcasts offer a great way to learn. As he put it (paraphrasing , when your eyes are busy, your mind is free. 

We talk about how the ConveyMED platform delivers a novel podcast experience combining visual images alongside an audio experience, and touch on the challenges in setting up a podcast. ConveyMED partners with medical associations to provide content expertise and guides the design process to ensure a self-directed experience that includes: 

As Mike explains, 

This is how the mobile generation wants their content. So if you're an association, an academic medical centre, or another content creator and you're not doing podcasts, I would highly encourage you to think about it.

Connect with Mike: [email protected]

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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

Infographics offer a powerful tool in our education armamentarium. 

We process images much faster than we do text, so visual communication saves time and allows more effective data retention. 

On this episode of Write Medicine, I'm joined by Bhaval Shah PhD and Karen Roy MSc—co-founders of Infograph-Ed, a company delivering engaging visual communications in healthcare. 

We talk about the power of visual communications in continuing healthcare education, how to develop a visual mindset and current trends in visual communications. We also discuss the design process and how to create effective visual communication through the following strategies: 

Resources from Infograph-Ed and Others
4-step plan: Designing Information with Impact
Better Ways to Present Information and Data
Color tool
Nightingale viz
McCandless D. Information is Beautiful. 2000. Collins.
Kirk A. Visualizing Datawebsite

Connect with Infograph-Ed
Karen Roy, CEO and Co-Founder: [email protected]

📍Grab the WriteCME Roadmap
⭐ Review the podcast
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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

Podcasts continue to grow in popularity, and educational podcasts have multiplied in recent years. In addition, the trend towards mobile education and shorter, more focused activities will likely continue as millennials become the majority of the health care workforce. 

On this episode of Write Medicine, I talk with Lisa Townsend, a marketing and communications professional working in healthcare associations and non-profit organizations. We discuss the developing role of both accredited and non-accredited continuing education podcasts and how they fit within the education provider's content portfolio in member-driven organizations and associations. 

In particular, Lisa shares insights on how to:

Connect with Lisa
e:  [email protected]
LinkedIn
Twitter

Connect with Alex
Twitter
LinkedIn

Production Team
Alexandra Howson PhD, CHCP: Host/Producer
Rhona Fraser BSc BVMS: Show notes
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📍Grab the WriteCME Roadmap
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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

Multi-disciplinary education has expanded in the last decade or so as a way to ensure that healthcare teams cooperate, coordinate care and communicate to make care more patient-centered, continuous and reliable. 

On this episode of Write Medicine I talk with Lorna Lucas, MSM, a healthcare education professional and advocate for equitable healthcare. We discuss the role of multidisciplinary education in improving patient outcomes, the challenges in delivering and evaluating multidisciplinary education, and interventions that emerged during the early months of the COVID 19 pandemic to provide psychosocial support for both professionals and patients. 

Lorna shares the need to focus on designing and delivering educational content in a holistic, equitable, and patient-centric way that fosters interdisciplinary collaborative practice. 

She says, “We must look holistically at the team dynamic. It’s great to have everyone performing at the top of their medical discipline. However, coordinated care requires attention between the cracks.” 

In this episode we talk about the importance of the following:
✔️ Local/onsite champions to support multidisciplinary education
✔️ Deep listening to perspectives in each discipline
✔️ Ensuring that everyone involved feels heard
✔️ Emphasizing a comprehensive team approach to address challenges, many of which are operational
✔️ Designing and delivering programs that work with everyone’s role in mind
 
We also touched on the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted existing disparities and inequities in education. She described how educators can play a role in providing psychosocial support for health professionals and how this support can improve patient outcomes.

Connect with Lorna
e:  [email protected]
LinkedIn

Connect with Alex
Twitter
LinkedIn

Hosted and produced by Alexandra Howson PhD, CHCP
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➡️ Needs Assessment Fall Workshop

This episode sponsored by CMEpalooza Fall

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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

Ruwaida Vakil, MSc is a consultant, speaker and a medical writer with expertise in medical communications and continuing medical education (CME). Ruwaida earned her MSc in Immunology at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Cancer Institute. She moved into developing educational content over 21 years ago and is a highly experienced writer of needs assessments. She has developed an effective system for ensuring that these kinds of CME/CE deliverables are framed by fair balance,  detail gaps in clinical practice, describe the likely education required to address those gaps, and foreshadow anticipated outcomes from education.
 
On this episode, Ruwaida shares valuable lessons for people considering a move into CME/CE writing, or for CME/CE writers who are considering working freelance.
 
 ✔️Establishing a CME/CE writing niche can be highly rewarding and sustainable especially if you establish yourself as an expert in writing needs assessments.
 
 ✔️Direct energy into marketing yourself as a CME/CE writer to ensure a steady stream of valuable and valued clients.
 
 ✔️Develop relationship management skills to ensure fair balance and content integrity.
 
 ✔️Use downtime to remain current in your specialist area. You can share new insights with clients and position yourself as a valuable partner in their work.
 
  ✔️Sales training and non-accredited education clients value CME writers as skilled content partners.
 
 Resources
Ruwaida has generously shared a range of resources for listeners. 

Connect with Ruwaida
ProMed Write LLC
e: [email protected]
LinkedIn
Twitter

Connect with Alex
Twitter
LinkedIn

Hosted and produced by Alexandra Howson PhD, CHCP
➡️

📍Grab the WriteCME Roadmap
⭐ Review the podcast
🗞️ Biweekly Newsletter with tips and resources to enrich your CME content niche
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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.

In this episode of Write Medicine, I'm joined by Don Harting to talk about CME writing competencies. What are the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that those writing CME/CPD content need to develop in order to create content that connects with and educates health professionals?

Medical writers often ask CME writers where to find training and how to get started in CME writing. Don says that clients share with him how challenging it is to find skilled writers for CME-related work. Don and his co-investigator Haifa Kassis think the medical writing field needs a competency model as a basis for training programs and skill-building that is directed toward the need for codified expertise in CME writing. They're using a Delphi process with a panel of experts to determine what those competencies might be. 

We discussed:
✔️ Changing practices for writing needs assessments
✔️ What a competency model for CME/CPD writers might entail
✔️ Why a competency model for CME/CPD writers is important
✔️ Key deliverables for CME writers
✔️ The role of Delphi method in determining competencies—what it is and how it can be used
✔️ Ranking function in Delphi
✔️ Anticipated outcomes from the Delphi approach
✔️ Ethics and fair balance in content development

Resources

Connect with Don
Twitter #cmechat or #meded
Blog: Occasional  posts  on CME-related topics

Connect with Alex

📍Grab the WriteCME Roadmap
⭐ Review the podcast
🗞️ Biweekly Newsletter with tips and resources to enrich your CME content niche
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Mentioned in this episode:

Fall Back to School Sale

We're running a back-to-school sale September 2 through 12. Standalone CME writing toolkits, business kits, and quarterly WriteCME Pro membership — all at the best pricing we've offered this year. Everything's at www.alexhowson.com. Link's in the show notes.