“The AIS24 keynote really opened my eyes. The potential for new learning methods – e.g. AI, shorter formats -- to disrupt this industry is overall very exciting.”
--Anish Parikh, President of BackTable, AIS24 attendee and PIM partner commenting on the Keynote Address by Daniel Wozniczka, MD, MBA, MPH
AIS Recap
The 2024 Alliance Industry Summit (AIS24) held September 16-18, 2024, in Philadelphia PA, convened those who develop, deliver, and/or support continuing education for healthcare professionals (CME/CE) to explore how education can elevate healthcare in the U.S.
Each year, the goal of the AIS meeting is to guide education planners toward meaningful, high impact activities that ultimately improve or expand access to quality care. Through AIS, education planners can remain abreast of evolving trends, challenges, and opportunities in CME/CE. An additional overarching theme of the 2024 AIS meeting was that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to disrupt the world of CME/CE. This article summarizes the key takeaways of the meeting.
Artificial Intelligence is Poised to Disrupt CME/CE
Just as Artificial Intelligence (IA) is transforming healthcare delivery, it is also changing the way healthcare providers (HCPs) continue to learn throughout their careers. For starters, education planners and others who develop, deliver, and/or support CME/CE, are already using AI to personalize learning experiences. Going forward, AI can also create immersive simulation environments, allowing clinician learners to explore diagnostic decision-making in a consequence-free setting.
AI can also do more with the data that results from CME/CE, such as generating automated CME/CE content, although education planners are cautioned to review and edit any AI-generating content for accuracy and relevance. Additionally, AI could be a powerful tool in the development of content that is more inclusive of marginalized patient populations and empowers HCPs to personalize patient care. In future CME/CE courses, AI might also suggest follow-up educational activities based on a learner’s performance, and/or evaluate a CME/CE activity for industry bias.[i]
In his Keynote Address, Daniel Wozniczka, MD, MBA, MPH, a hospitalist in Evanston, IL, shared insights on how generational preferences among Millennials and Gen Z will shape the future CME/CE. In an era where the sheer volume of medical information is overwhelming and physicians spend more time completing paperwork than delivering patient care, it is no surprise that rates of clinician burnout are sky-high.[ii]
AI can sort through patient charts, clinical trial data, the medical literature, and any other resource to deliver targeted information to HCPs in seconds for what traditionally might take hours or days. By using AI, physicians can devote more time to patient care and to CME/CE.
“AI is not the only solution to these problems,” said Dr. Wozniczka, “but it will be a powerful tool in the way we deliver healthcare going forward and in the way we continue learning throughout our careers.”
In addition to charting a new course for HCP education, the annual AIS meeting is historically a great event for gaining insights into best practices for education planners, particularly in areas of educational design and outcomes.
Want Strong Outcomes? Start with Strong Educational Design
The sessions at AIS24 were filled with tips and strategies for maximizing the impact of HCP education. It is no surprise that the most impactful activities begin with smart plans for evaluating educational effect. Presenters at AIS24 stressed knowing your audience and delivering education that meets their needs. They also noted that developing education that is up-to-date and relevant for the target audience is a great start, but when you follow up with resources that may be used at the point of care, such as patient education materials, your educational impact can be more powerful.
Another theme of educational design was partnerships. Whether you engage a medical society, patient advocacy organization, or other entity that can help you achieve your goals, strong partnerships are increasingly the key to successful HCP education.
Additional themes at AIS24 regarding educational design included:
- Real world learning: when analyzing the impact of your education, consider incorporating data from EHRs, PROs, biometric monitoring devices, etc.
- Serial learning is often more effective than a single intervention, as the more interventions you include, the larger the effect size.
- Patients as faculty: using patient advocates or actual patients is a powerful tool for demonstrating how care decisions are perceived.
For Educational Outcomes, More is Often More
When analyzing the outcomes data from your education, the overall message from presenters and attendees at AIS24 was to share insights broadly and thoughtfully. Of course, each activity will need to show educational effect, but outcomes are more than their p values. When developing a strategy for outcomes and reporting, take a storyteller’s approach by using these tactics:
- Develop a poster: share your findings at meetings to showcase the content, the instructional design, and/or whatever was special about the activity.
- Submit for publication: the rigor of scientific publication elevates CME/CE outcomes.
- Quarterly infographics: highlight specific outcomes or trends in shorter deliverables such as an infographic before the full report is ready.
- Conduct outcomes presentation meetings to contextualize the data: you know your findings best and should set the tone for those who will read your outcomes report.
In summary, the CME/CE industry is currently a $3 billion industry in the US and is on track to reach $4 billion by 2028.[iii] Education planners who follow best practices in developing and evaluating education are more likely to be a central part of that expansion.
Questions about educational design or outcomes? Contact us at [email protected]
