Looking Outside Your State For A Continuing Education Meeting

In moving to a new practice in a different geographic region of the country (Philadelphia to Nashville), I began to explore how to accrue the required CME credits for state licensure in my new area. I explored not just my own state but each of the surrounding state association Websites for the dates, locations and most importantly content/speakers of that state’s particular meeting.

I was impressed in looking around at the quality of meetings in states surrounding Tennessee and when I searched various states throughout the country, it was more of the same. There were well known, well published, highly regarded podiatric physicians and, in multiple instances, orthopedic (MD, DO) physicians serving as lecturers as well. Furthermore, multiple states incorporated various other medical disciplines (e.g., dermatology, radiology, pain management/addiction, physical therapy, etc.) as part of the speaker panel. It was nice to see this collaboration across medical specialties to come together for education, especially in the foot and ankle world.

For the Tennessee Podiatric Medical Association’s meeting, we had two highly regarded MDs giving multiple lectures alongside DPM colleagues. This situation happened nationally a few years ago when Robert Anderson, MD, then of OrthoCarolina, along with some of his colleagues, were part of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons 2016 Annual Scientific Conference. It is positive to see this multidisciplinary phenomenon carrying over into the local state level.

Every once in a while, I think it is important that we should look to a neighboring state and see what that state has going on meeting-wise. Alternately, you could look farther away at a location you may want to visit, tie in a short (family or adults-only) vacation and get a break from work (while still having an educational component). The Tennessee Podiatric Medical Association met just outside of Nashville from September 27-30. You can also pick a location in a time of year that is appealing. One example would be the Florida Podiatric Medical Association, which meets just outside of Orlando from January 9-13, 2019. Picking a secondary meeting almost feels like the college search. There is likely something for everyone’s taste or objective in a meeting (i.e., time of year, location, surrounding activities, etc.).

So the next time you are looking to accumulate some CME credits outside of attending your own state’s meeting, look to your neighbors and beyond.

Note: Dr. Hood has no affiliation with any state meetings noted in the article. He is a dues-paying member of the Tennessee Podiatric Medical Association.

Dr. Hood is a fellowship-trained foot and ankle surgeon. Follow him on Twitter at @crhoodjrdpm or check out his website www.footankleresource.com, which contains information on student, resident, and new practitioner transitioning, as well as links to academic and educations resources found throughout the Internet. He began working at Neuhaus Foot and Ankle (www.neufoot.com) in August 2018.