1. She was beginning to see the frustrations of being in the continuing education (CME) market, and
2. She could not understand how such intelligent people (experts) could be so business stupid.

Now my friend has been in the speaking industry as a talent agent, a book agent, and as a professional speaker and trainer for more years than she will tell me. Her frustration arises from the fact that in the speaking industry we look at four benchmarks of proficiency:

1. Expertise – knowing your subject better than anyone in your audience.
2. Eloquence – having the skills and the preparation to relay that expertise from the platform.
3. Enterprise – having the business knowledge to convey expertise and eloquence without losing your shirt.
4. Ethics – having the professional selfrespect to do business in a morally correct fashion and not feel, coop, or plagiarize other people’s materials.

My friend’s email betrayed that she could not understand why all four benchmarks were missed in the CME arena.

I explained to her that it was not that the speakers she watched lacked expertise. It was that they lacked the eloquence to portray it. They used the same old jokes that they heard at the last four or five seminars very often, jokes that are not even relevant tangentially to the subject at hand. Alternatively, they will use a story whether it is heart wrenching, heart warming, scary, or reassuring even if it does not apply to the topic at hand. They will stretch and then over stretch to make a connection and in the process lose the audience and the entire point of their speech.

I explained to her that I am a devotee of AudioDigest (TM). AudioDigest (TM) is a recording service for medical seminars. Their editors listen to literally hundreds of speakers recorded at major CME programs around the world. They then have no trouble editing this down to the few that are worthy of audio reproduction. Even with that editorial review and relying on the grading of medical audiences, significant amounts of editing are required to produce useable audio seminars. An audioDigest program runs 55 to 60 minutes and very often has two speakers. I always have to remind my own speech students that each of these speakers were recorded at a 55 to 60 minute speech and yet very often it requires three of them edited to 20 minutes of useable information to create one 60minute audioDigest program. That means that each speaker wasted twothirds of their time and the audience’s time.

Speakers in the CME market are selected based on a written abstract. Almost never is a demonstration DVD required nor testimonials or prior review scores from previous appearances. When a CME committee selects a speaker, it is either political or based on their knowledge (expertise in the field). That committee has no idea of whether or not the speaker possesses any eloquence.

When it comes to enterprise, the old adage,

“Doctors do not know business”

rings truer than in any other endeavor. Medical speakers are very much like retired federal employees, they believe that a $500.00 speak use fee is a “homerun.” Beginning speakers charge greater than $1,500.00 with no expertise and little or no eloquence. In CME programs, all of the speakers have “terminal degrees.” They are doctors. They possess eight years or more of formal education and another three years or more of postgraduate training. Why are they charging the same amount as a college student or a construction worker turned speaker?

The reason is their expectation. They expect to get $500.00. I call this the “doughnut money” because most of these medical speakers got their first speaking engagement from a local drug rep that paid them out of the same budget that the drug rep uses to bring doughnuts to the doctor’s staff in the morning. These “doughnut money” speakers destroy the opportunity for enterprise in the CME market for more eloquent experts. This is why those of us who are professional speakers for a living simply do not speak in the CME arena. We ply our trade in more fervent pastures such as the corporate board room or high tech industry.

So if doctors have expertise but lack eloquence and enterprise, what about ethics? Aren’t doctors supposed to be the most ethical people? Don’t we trust them with decisions of life or death?

Physicians are on ethics committees in hospitals and make decisions regarding the appropriateness of each other’s care as well as weighing the risks and benefits of various treatments for various diseases. In these arenas, doctors are tremendously ethical.

Unfortunately when it comes to plagiarizing each other’s materials, “borrowing” comic strips, cartoons, and other artwork, even photographs, from copyrighted print material, playing music and even videos without royalty, even playing a recording of another speaker without their knowledge, doctors lack any form of professional speakers’ ethics. The speaking industry has a strict code of ethics regarding these activities and many others just as the medical profession has a code of ethics within their scope of practice. Those physicians that choose to live in both worlds choose to live by both codes of ethics and they must learn it.

My physician colleagues who speak for a hobby are not bad people. They are simply not educated in the speaking profession.

So what is the solution?

Just as physicians attend continuing medical education (CME), professional speakers attend continuing education dealing with the skills required to advance their Expertise, Eloquence, Enterprise and Ethics. My physician colleagues who choose to “dabble” in professional speaking should go to their local community college and take a speech course as well as creative writing course. If they took one in college, they need to take it again. Refreshers are always good. If they do not want to go to the community college, then they should join Toastmasters International.

This is an excellent opportunity for a new and burgeoning speakers to have their work critiqued (doctors fear critique) and a tremendous venue to try out new material. They do not have to be afraid of not knowing all the answers because their audience does not care what the message is, they do not care about the expertise. At Toastmasters International they care about the technique, it is the eloquence that matters.

If my physician colleagues do not want to join Toastmasters or go to a community college, then they should take an improve course at a local comedy club. Here they will learn stage presence, timing, pauses, joke writing, and finding the comedy in everyday life.

Through any one or all of these opportunities, the physician who “dabbles” in speaking can be as good on the platform as the family practitioner who “dabbles” in office surgery. They will be competent. They will be selfassured. They will have great outcome and they will know when they are getting in over their head. . . . When to ask for help.

The AAMC Curriculum Directory has a list of the medical student education programs at the 126 U.S. and 16 Canadian medical schools with the details of each program. A student can not only search for the required courses but he can also check out the instructional and curricular innovations. The studies include graduation and post graduation studies in medicine.

Intensive reviews of these educational programs and instructional methods are carried out from time to time by medical schools in order to encourage improvement of medical education. As a result, an interdisciplinary approach to the presentation of individual course content has emerged, and the functional applications of structure have gained more emphasis.

Medical school students have more opportunities for independent study and the coursework can be elective. An interesting development in the curriculum has been the individual approach, whereby separate learning tracks of varying durations have been established at various schools. This approach has subsequently been adapted by most of the medical schools and has been integrated in their program.

The main aim of any Medical School Program is to turn out ethical and culturally competent physicians. Excellence in medical education is of prime importance, and that is why the program includes acquisition of clinical skills, professional attitudes and building up a strong knowledge base.

Many programs introduce first year students to clinical experiences to encourage learning and professional growth. Medical School programs which provide graduate medical education train students professionally and clinically. They are taught the humane care of patients and learn to take responsibility as resident physicians as early as possible.

The Academic Programs of Medical Schools provide details about Graduate Medical Education, Graduate Programs, Postdoctoral Programs and ways of continuing medical education. Medical School Programs offer education and training in many subjects of biomedical sciences.

If the university has a research campus, research opportunities are made available to the Medical School students. Some research subjects offered are biochemistry, biotechnology, cell biology, virology and cellular immunology. Seminars and journal clubs have to be done in addition to course work.

Postdoctoral studies are also included in the medical school programs. Training of postdoctoral appointees has been a part of the program in recent years. A list of seminars is offered for them so that they can hear about the research studies of their peers and also get feedback from experts and professors regarding further studies.

A very recent addition to the medical school program has been spirituality. The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB is introducing it in their curriculum from this fall semester. The program manager feels that this subject will enable the medical school students to understand patients better by understanding their culture, religious beliefs and end-of-life issues.

In recent years professionals have likewise turned to online educational programs as a way of augmenting their knowledge base and capability in the workplace. Specialized training can easily be completed online with the minimal amount of time required for hands-on coursework while classes are conducted in a variety of ways through online portals and can easily be managed to fit individual schedules. The medical profession is one such profession that has embraced online and blended education in a big way.

Treatments, procedures and methodology as well as theory and practical application are all now taught online in various blended structures and while professionals go about their practice, they can now learn from the most brilliant minds in their respective fields at the same time, even if they are half way around the world.

Online CME for Professionals

CME stands for continuing medical education, that is, a form of continuing education through which medical professionals refresh their knowledge and learn about the new developments in their fields. CME activities take place in the form of classroom/seminar events as well as through publications, online courses and other electronic media such as DVD, Video/audio presentations.

CME in North America

CME has become a necessity in many parts of the US, for instance, Arizona State requires 40 hours of CME study every two years in order for practitioners of medicine to maintain their licenses. Within the US, CME for medical professionals is regulated by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Osteopathic Association.

CME in Canada

400 credits of CME are required every five years, with at least 40 in each year. The certification is provided by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). The RCPSC certifies its members, specialist physicians, through the Maintenance of Certification Programs.

Online CME

Types of instruction

• In online CME, professionals are most likely to encounter the following formats of instruction;
• Text and graphic journals (like reading a textbook)
• Slide-audio/video lectures (Like attending a seminar or lecture)
• Case-based online interactive learning (where students make decisions according to the case study and clinical presentation)
• Quiz questions and answers (computer programs ask questions and provide correct explanations and information in accordance with the answers)
• Correspondence courses (a group of doctors study similar modules and correspond with each other, sharing knowledge and experience).

Online CME Costs

Online CME is very affordable. This affordability is compounded by the fact that the usual benefits of online education, and the freedom it provides professionals, applies to online medical education as well and therefore reduces the overall cost of CME.

Common rates;

• 3500+ hours of CME conducted over the internet is free.
• 18000+ hours of online CME costs as low as $5-$15 per hour.

A few specialist courses are more expensive than $15 per hour due to the nature of the training.