Dear Colleagues,
The purpose of this issue is to share with our collective readership, a snap-shot of the rich content and thought-provoking discussions which occurred throughout the 2021 Annual Meeting. The 2021 Planning Committee under the leadership of Asha Maharaj, rose to the extraordinary challenges of designing a virtual meeting curriculum with distinction. As Betsy Williams noted in the President’s opening remarks, “the program was designed intentionally to present best practices, discuss data, and define the curriculum as an educational quality improvement intervention opportunity”. The Committee’s thoughtful and detailed planning process achieved many SACME “firsts” in terms of educational milestones, a few of which are highlighted here:
- it was the first experience in offering a virtual event and as such, it allowed for new and effective innovations in the presentation of member abstracts, posters and exhibits in an asynchronous, pre-recorded format;
- all meeting sessions were recorded and are available for future use as enduring materials;
- post-meeting, all registrants have been provided “on-demand” and unrestricted access to all recorded presentations and educational materials which will “live” on the official meeting site for the next 12 months;
- it was the first “longitudinal” annual meeting curriculum spanning weeks, not days, starting with a selection of 2 and 3 hour, intensive workshops; and most important,
- it offered a curriculum which promoted extensive interactive learner discussions, as well as online networking via discussion boards and attendee email threads, all from the convenience of one’s office or home.
As a service to our members and others who were not able to participate in the Annual Meeting this year, the CE News editorial team has developed this dedicated annual meeting proceedings issue. In this issue, we provide brief summaries and key lessons learned for the pre-conference workshops, keynote presentation, plenary panel discussions, and member-authored abstract presentations in CME/CPD Best Practices and Best Research categories. We hope you find it useful as a reference guide to the extensive annual meeting curriculum and enjoy reading the captivating commentaries of our guest speakers, as well as the inspiring and creative initiatives conceived by the brightest minds in CME/CPD practice today—by you, our members who made this issue possible.
Wishing you the very best,
Robert and Martin
