Medical education and certainly medical conferences are in desperate need of disruptive innovation if they are going to live up to the expectation of fostering lifelong learning among their members.
In a few weeks I will receive a few hundred page book from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. It will contain listings of hundreds of lectures, and thousands of abstracts and specialty Q and A sessions. That’s where the stress level rises… and my desire to even glance at the offering wanes. In this early era of BIG integrated data, this simply does not need to be the case.
The Academy knows:
- my prior years’ preferences.
- my area of specialization.
- the CME courses I’ve attended.
- They’ve NEVER asked me which subject matter interests me most.
- They’re never asked for my twitter handle… and thus access to my feed and keywords from the API.
- And I could go on and on.
The end result, which should be to enhance my lifelong learning experiences… is instead a stressful trip to a far-off city where my primary objective is to rekindle old friendships and see how my buddies are doing who I trained with.
I already don’t have enough time to read all the relevant Orthopedic literature I want to consume. How does the AAOS expect me to page through 100+ pages to find a course or two that might interest me… and then decipher whether or not they are in different tracks and don’t interfere with each other?
As John Hagel and his co-authors of “The Power of Pull” highlight… this is a classic example of the failing power of “push” technologies in our hyper-connected world of information overload where the sheer volume of content available exceeds the cognitive capacity of each and every physician. The leaders of the Academy represent the very incumbents of the core where the old ways of thinking are constantly kicked around and can stem the innovative flow of ideas that are needed to form the relationships with the key fringe players necessary to remain a viable institution going forward — and lead to failure of their main objective… to enhance the knowledge of their base. In all due respect to our leaders, our needs can no longer be anticipated and shaped by this centralized, siloed set of decision makers. The Power of Pull needs to be embraced!
Times are different… and the velocity of information exchange and our mechanisms for learning and sharing this vast amount of information is changing and evolving rapidly. Our relationships are no longer geographically limited. No matter our passion, it is not difficult to find others, with similar passions and goals throughout the world. When we interact with our social network, we are constantly introduced to our networks contacts and they form our fringe contacts… which serendipitously could lead to learning about a new process, a new device, a new procedure… or even a course I was not even aware was being offered. It is along this fringe where the innovation in knowledge and learning is going to evolve. Our outer circles of our social network will drive this… without overt effort. It will occur organically as we share, teach and learn from one another.
There is no question that these large mega meetings will go the way of the dinosaurs. They are simply too large, too poorly focused, and do not offer the opportunity for a physician to engage in true lifelong learning capabilities which are narrowly focused in areas where we have a particular interest in.
This year’s meeting in Chicago will arrive, we will depart, we will view the conference center with 5000 abstracts and many of us will wander the halls aimlessly wondering which of the thousands of scientific presentations we should in fact attend. Analysis paralysis will render many to continually wander the halls or see the sites of Chicago.
There is a far better way of doing this …And we do not have to look far beyond the confines of both Amazon, iTunes and a socially rooted, network oriented path to guide our members and reveal to them how painfully clear and how simple this process of information curation can be. Yes, I should have access to “the book” … but leading off should be a customized proposed agenda for a course structure I might find interesting based on my previous course choices, the area of specialty, keyword mining and the results of a well-constructed poll. This is the difference between push and pull applications. This has been discussed before and is nothing new. It is simply time for the medical education process to come into the Internet century and certainly into the new media century where physicians will be offered courses and scientific data that they have shown interest in the past. We can do better. We must strive to do better. It’s in everyone’s best interest.
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Great post! As a HIT event producer, this type of feedback is invaluable. What are the tools you think will be most helpful to make the event and event planning process more effective for attendees?
Adam… Thanks for stopping by. There is an enormous amount of information out there about our online habits, etc. Some concealed in APIs, some not very concealed, and those that lie behind a firewall. As our social world becomes more and more integrated (to the dismay of privacy fanatics) we will know far more about each others likes and dislikes, as well as keywords we’ve utilized over and over. People are starting to do this with physicians on twitter by linking to their NPI numbers… imagine the data that will yield! Imagine the course structure you could suggest to that individual if you possessed that data? :-) There are many ways to accomplish the task of having a far better understanding of the likes, values and desires of your intended audience… perhaps more cumbersome and 20th century like… but functional nonetheless. Mega-conferences which recognize the problem and formulate a plan to aid their attendees will remain vital and relevant as the CME/conference industry is seriously disrupted over the coming years.
Howard-in your opinion, how much should we planners take advantage of hidden data vs overt outreach to the potential attendees? We are always concerned about the line between “tracking” our attendees vs. trying to convince them to fill out surveys, etc.
Adam… anyone who uses a computer with any regularity and thinks that they have “privacy” is mistaken :-) Google knows everything! So does Amazon, Apple, etc….
I would be more than willing to have my choices and data mined to present me with a core set of opportunities to improve upon my centralized skill sets… then as Michiel suggests, show me content that is perhaps just outside my “comfort zone” to see if I’m willing to open my mind to other opportunities, other sources of knowledge, etc…
Then we need to talk about the venue, the user experience, limiting the number of slides the presenter can read to me :-) etc….
Hi Howard, agree with the main part of your (from push to pull) statement. However IMO one sidenote should be added and that is that one should on the other side of the spectrum beware of avoiding getting out of ones own ” comfort zone” (i.e. there is also a certain ” risk” towards tunnel vision and ony superspecializing in things you are already specialized and interested in).
So whereas the pull rather then push strategy is really teasing and providing a lot of added convenience in getting the most out of conventions, symposia etcetc a solution is still needed on how to draw attention to new things just outside ones own comfort zone and expertise but that ARE (considered by others then you) relevant to know (also), Here there is the same problem: how to find out which not yet exploerd areas of expertise are of added value to your personal professional development amongst these overwheling amount of courses, abstracts and lecture agendas.
But perhaps also this part can be made more “ready to go” based on analysis of the doctor/convention attendants.
Since treatment is more and more tailored to the individual patient, why not tailor education to the individual persons to be trained?
Michiel… Wise words… thanks for stopping by! I am all for offering people content that is outside their comfort zone… as a matter of fact I applaud the effort. But the people who put on these med ed conferences need to present their offerings in a far more 2.0 (data mining) compliant manner, they need to vastly improve the UI/UX experience, and enable me to tailor my course load to my past likes, areas of interest, areas way outside my comfort zone and enable me to do so in a way that does not lead to analysis paralysis.
Once again… thanks for stopping by!