HOW THEY MEET: At its 2011 Annual Conference in January, the Alliance for CME announced that it was broadening its focus. The Global Alliance for Medical Education expects around 300 atten- dees at its 16th Annual Meeting in Munich on June 5–7.
ident ofGAME’s board of directors and president ofHITGlobal Inc. “There is more and more interest on behalf of CME providers to become more global in their approach to CME.” In June, GAME will host its 16th Annual Meeting in
Munich, with close to 300 attendees expected, and a lineup of speakers from around the world, including the secretary of public health for Bavaria and specialists in accreditation from Canada, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Attendees will participate in roundtables, case-study discussions, and poster presentations on international best practices in CME. Because the event has grown significantly over the last fewyears, the organization has hired ABTS Convention Services to serve as professionalcongress organizer this year, Piché said, “to enhance our reach and enhance awareness among those involved in CME.” GAME’s leadership thinks its Annual
Meeting and other events have grown because governments around the world are more closely scrutinizingCME, par- ticularly those programs that are com- mercially supported, and because CME producers are looking to collaborate with other organizations facing the same chal- lenges. “The industry has been in lots of turmoilfrom allthe changes,” Piché said. “Fewer physicians are being funded to participate in internationalcongresses, so more information is being conveyed through technology at home or in the clinical environment. “Those developing CME need more
help standardizing content and translat- ing it into different languages,” Piché continued. “It used to be that physicians were traveling to international con- gresses, but now organizers are traveling to congresses and then they need to dis- seminate the information to doctors. And technology makes it much easier to disseminate internationalprograms at local levels.” Incorporating new technologies for
CME delivery is also an important part of the education that GAME delivers to its audiences. As the world grows smaller through the use of technology, “the rela- tionships between CME providers are getting tighter and tighter,” said Davide Veglia, president of ABTS. “GAME is
reaching out at the global level to help different organizations collaborate on CME programs, and there is no other organi- zation trying to coordinate at that level.”
Contributing Editor Nancy Mann Jackson is a freelance writer based in Huntsville, Ala.