Leading the Way to a New Normal

Health Care Problem: COVID-19 emerged in March 2020 and took the world by storm. Along with family and work lives being turned upside down, the entire conference and convention planning enterprise screeched to a grinding halt. How would an organization that plans the largest gathering of pharmacists at their annual Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition overcome this hurdle? to continue to provide high quality educational programs to members? What about the other meetings traditionally planned for unique learner niches? Follow ASHP’s journey from pivoting live meeting(s) to an entire online virtual experience to overcome the secondary effects of COVID on education for health professionals. Educational planning and delivery would be changing, and the process had to be adjusted quickly. Gaps in knowledge of planning virtual meetings had to be identified and addressed quickly. For the first time in 2020, ASHP staff from multiple divisions prepared, developed, and delivered completely virtual conferences. Staff and faculty had to adjust and expand roles and responsibilities to ensure the meetings occurred on time in the new virtual platform with the same robust educational experience offered in live meetings. Post meeting staff debriefs included assessing best practices from interactions with virtual platform vendors and evaluating learner/faculty feedback following each of the meetings in the virtual platforms.

Educational Strategy:

Gaps in knowledge of planning virtual conferences had to be identified and addressed quickly while also taking into consideration meeting the educational expectations of members and attendees. Pivoting from a completely live educational meeting experience to a completely virtual experience required innovation and the quick adaptation of newer technologies to deliver content. Once a virtual platform was selected to host the meeting, the flip of having the educational programs presented began. Content development and delivery had to consider the nuances of a virtual learning platform. Some programs were recorded and planned to be broadcast on a schedule while others were designed as a recorded presentation with a live Q&A session immediately following. This enabled the feel of a live meeting since attendees were able to submit questions for faculty or presenter responses in much the same way they would at a live event. Select educational sessions were presented with a live platform from presentation to Q&A. The disadvantage of having virtual and online only educational sessions is that the in-person interactions that take place in a live conference session would not be possible. To overcome this barrier, small breakout groups and workshops were coordinated for some sessions at the meetings. This allowed the “feel” of the small group sharing and encouraged active participation. These smaller breakout sessions kept the attendees engaged and gave them the ability to collaborate in problem solving patient case scenarios or work-related processes.

Patient-Level Outcome(s) Measured:

Gaps in knowledge of planning virtual conferences had to be identified and addressed quickly while also taking into consideration meeting the educational expectations of members and attendees. Pivoting from a completely live educational meeting experience to a completely virtual experience required innovation and the quick adaptation of newer technologies to deliver content. Once a virtual platform was selected to host the meeting, the flip of having the educational programs presented began. Content development and delivery had to consider the nuances of a virtual learning platform. Some programs were recorded and planned to be broadcast on a schedule while others were designed as a recorded presentation with a live Q&A session immediately following. This enabled the feel of a live meeting since attendees were able to submit questions for faculty or presenter responses in much the same way they would at a live event. Select educational sessions were presented with a live platform from presentation to Q&A. The disadvantage of having virtual and online only educational sessions is that the in-person interactions that take place in a live conference session would not be possible. To overcome this barrier, small breakout groups and workshops were coordinated for some sessions at the meetings. This allowed the “feel” of the small group sharing and encouraged active participation. These smaller breakout sessions kept the attendees engaged and gave them the ability to collaborate in problem solving patient case scenarios or work-related processes.