There has been much discussion lately on why social media is not more broadly used within continuing medical education (CME).  I have included two presentations below that I gave at the 2010 and 2011 Annual Meetings of the Alliance of CME respectively.  The first reveals the data from a brief survey that Alicia Sutton, CCMEP, EVP of Omnia Education, and I conducted examining the professional and personal use of social media by people and organizations working in CME.  The second presentation provides a step-wise approach to developing a strategic plan for using social media in CME using the Forrester’s POST Methodology.

Here are some of the key findings we found from the 141 survey respondents

• 79% use social media (SM) in their personal life.
• 76% rate themselves as “intermediate” or “advanced” in their SM knowledge.
• 64% reported their organization uses SM.
• 54% rate companies as SM “beginner” or “novice.”
• Only 24% have a formal strategic plan for SM.

As with any initiative, organizations need to conduct thorough planning in order to be successful.  Given that only 24% of people reported that their CME organization had a formal strategic plan, it is not surprising that social media is not more effectively used in our community.  The below presentation recommends using the POST Methodology for developing a strategic plan and a starter kit for the implementation of social media.

We are pleased to announce that Jeremy Lundberg, CEO of DLC Solutions and EthosCE LMS, was recently honored with the “2011 President’s Award” by the Alliance for CME during their annual meeting in San Francisco.  The award acknowledges Jeremy’s leadership contributions in developing a formal strategic plan for the Alliance’s deployment of social media and emerging technologies.  As a result of his work with the Social Media Working Group, the Alliance’s Board of Directors created the “Emerging Technologies Committee” to further guide the organization.  Jeremy will be an active member of the new committee and he looks forward to working with his fellow members to execute on the strategic plan and recommendations provided to the Board.  We would also like to thank Jann Balmer, PhD, FACME, (Past President), George Mejicano, MD, FACME, (President), the Alliance for CME’s Board of Directors, and the membership for embracing Web 2.0 and social media as a requisite tool for healthcare professional education.

Below is one of the presentations that Jeremy gave at the 2011 Alliance for CME Annual Meeting. The presentation includes a toolbox of free social media tools and a step-wise methodology for creating a strategic social media plan for CME organizations using Forrester Research’s P-O-S-T Methodology.  Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback.