Elevate your CME Game: Insider Secrets from Kristen Dascoli to Transform Education Programs

Write Medicine

Kristen Dascoli, a seasoned pro with experience on both the editorial and business development sides of CME, pulls back the curtain on the development of a pioneering program on gender-affirming HIV care.

ELEVATE was a groundbreaking CME initiative that aimed to enhance healthcare providers' cultural competencies in delivering gender-affirming care to transgender and gender-diverse patients. From its pilot in January 2015 to its conclusion in the summer of 2019, ELEVATE conducted 26 trainings across 14 states, partnering with 9 chapters of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a county healthcare agency, and 13 health systems. The initiative reached nearly 1,500 healthcare professionals in primary care, infectious disease, and HIV practice settings through live events, an online webinar, interviews, and a published white paper, ultimately inspiring the creation of a Transgender Advisory Committee at one of the participating health systems.

1. Discover how a little targeted research into supporters' educational focus can help you create needs assessments that resonate with funders, while maintaining the highest standards of independence and objectivity.

2. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the development of ELEVATE and learn how you can apply similar strategies to bring your own visionary ideas to life.

3. Master the art of designing education that starts smart, scales strategically, and captures meaningful, measurable outcomes that demonstrate real-world impact.

Resources

McCrea AD, Dascoli KL. Inclusion in Education, Part 1: Designing a Gender-affirming Educational Initiative. Alliance Almanac. October 2017.

McCrea AD, Dascoli KL. Inclusion in Education, Part 2: A New Method for Measuring Changes in Skill, Attitude, and Behavior. Alliance Almanac. April 2018.

Connect with Kristen

Freelance Medical Writer/Editor/Business Consultant

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

02:40 Kristen's Background in CME

03:54 The changes in the process of writing needs assessments

05:52 Walking through the process of the development and impact of a program like Elevate

12:13 Lessons from the pilot program of Elevate

15:42 How Elevate changed Kristen and the organization she worked in

19:56 How to establish and build relationships

23:40 Starting conversations for collaboration

27:22 Surprising outcomes and feedback

30:42 Advice for education providers who want to develop innovative programs

34:23 How to start to be brave and make connections

37:52 Challenges writers have when writing a needs assessment for a grant proposal

44:18 Recap of today's episodes key takeaways

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