Take Your CME Meetings Online: Everything You Need to Know

Before we cover the mechanics of virtual CME meetings, know this: We’re taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as you are.

Like you, we’re working from home. We’re also practicing social distancing and minimizing out-of-home errands. Let’s all hang in there and stay healthy as this crisis continues.

Also know that the information on this page exists to inform you of your options for virtual CME delivery. As a cloud-based CME and CE learning management system, Rievent happens to fulfill a unique need during a (hopefully) unique crisis. If you’re scrambling to transition a CME live event or meeting series to a virtual experience, that’s an area where we can help.

What you need to know about CME meetings in the coronavirus era

1. The ACCME provided helpful COVID-19 resources and FAQs for CE providers.

Last month, the ACCME delivered a webinar about virtualizing live meetings and modifying CME business operations. One of the points they made was that for any activities, except Regularly Scheduled Series, that change format from an in-person course to a live online virtual course or enduring material, the activity format in PARS should be updated accordingly. RSS activities delivered virtually do not need to be changed in PARS since those activity types can be delivered either in-person or virtually.

For more information, please refer to the ACCME’s COVID-19 Educator Resources page.

2. Recording your live events provides flexibility.

Any time you record a CME-accredited live event, you can upload the video to the web and repurpose it as an enduring/on-demand activity. When you do this, you can also add a pre-test, post-test, and evaluations to the activity.

According the ACCME, whenever a recorded live in-person meeting is repurposed for online on-demand access, it should be reported as a new “Internet Activity Enduring Material,” separate from the original live event.

 

3. Webinars give you an additional option.

When it makes sense, you might want to “convert” a live meeting into a CME webinar. Your presenter may need to create slides or modify existing slides, but this format can work well for shorter, single-session meetings with small audiences. The webinar, of course, would be reported to the ACCME as an “internet live course.”

Transforming a live CME meeting into a virtual live CME meeting

Rievent isn’t a live-streaming platform, but it can help you seamlessly process CME alongside any virtual meeting platform you choose. 

You can use any virtual meeting platform. Awarding and managing CME credits will not be affected.

Here’s how the process works:

1. Deliver your event on any virtual meeting or live-streaming platform.
2. Provide instructions for claiming CME or CE credit at the conclusion of the meeting. There are two ways for learners to claim credit this way in Rievent. For single-session meetings, you can provide learners with a unique, five-digit code. They visit your branded Learning Portal or activity.credit and enter the code to receive credit. For multi-session meetings, you can provide learners with a unique URL. They visit the URL to claim credit for the sessions attended.

That’s really all there is to it. You have the option of sending learners the unique code or URL via email or just flashing it on the screen at the end of the meeting – whatever works for you, your learners, and your event.

You can also manage event registration with Rievent.

If you need a way for learners to easily search for events, select the one(s) they want to attend, and register, Rievent can help with that, too. In Rievent, every event appears in your searchable events calendar. Learners can filter upcoming events based on date ranges or keywords to find the ones they are most interested in.

Repurposing live meetings into enduring materials

If you recorded your live meeting, you can upload it to the web and turn it into an enduring/on-demand CME activity. Here’s how this process works in Rievent:

In the event you already have  content available on your website – self-hosted videos, for instance – Rievent Connect can embed the CME activity right alongside that content. You can publish  content the same way you always do and learners can access it the same way they always have. The only difference will be that they can now complete the CME activity alongside the content, without ever leaving your site.

Transforming shorter meetings into webinars

Your speakers are already prepared to deliver their presentations. Instead of conducting the meeting as an in-person live event, consider breaking the meeting out into a series of online live webinars. 

Webinars may be a good option for single-session, slide-based presentations to small-to-medium-sized audiences. Using Rievent, you can deliver them as follows:

1. Deliver the webinar using WebEx, GoToWebinar, or any other application.
2. Provide learners with a unique code at the end of the webinar. Learners can then visit your Learning Portal or activity.credit to enter the code.

It basically works the same as with a virtual live meeting, except that the activity is reported to the ACCME as an “Internet Live Course.”. As with live meetings, you can also record the webinar and repurpose it as an enduring activity in Rievent.

Contact us to talk about integrating CME into your virtual meetings

In these fluid and unusual times, every CME organization has unique concerns. To talk to us about your live meetings and what makes the most sense for you and your learners, all you have to do is contact us. We’ll set up a time to talk, and you can even see Rievent in action.