The California Medical Association (CMA) wants to highlight your continuing medical education (CME) program successes! Is there an activity or program change you are especially proud of? Big or small, we want to feature them all! Please submit your success stories to cme@cmadocs.org. Here are a few of the many wonderful examples already submitted:

• We are proud of our new regularly scheduled series activity covering issues identified in the pediatric intensive care unit.
   
• As a result of the verbal evaluation (changes to practice), it was identified that the hospital was having a hard time getting women to come to the emergency department (ED) soon enough for early treatment of stroke. The interprofessional team of physicians and nurse practitioners developed a community educational program and then spent time going out into the community and speaking at women's networking events to educate the population on the early signs and symptoms of stroke and why it is important to get into the ED early for treatment. As a result, the hospital saw a 13% increase in women coming in for stroke treatment, with a 17% increase in men.
   
• As a result of a CME activity covering diagnosis, management, readmissions and mortality rates for patients with heart failure, a task force of physicians and nurses was formed to monitor and champion evidence-based practices to ensure that appropriate medical therapies are provided across the four stages of heart failure and that physicians are using new congestive heart failure power plans. Case reviews are being conducted and feedback is provided to the physicians and nurses as applicable. To date, we have not had any heart-failure mortalities.
   
• We are getting leadership’s approval to fund a learning management system for our CME program. This will greatly enhance the operation, efficiency and access to physicians’ CME transcripts 24/7.
   
• In April 2023, we were approached by our local public health officer regarding new U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration requirements around addiction medicine education for physicians and the opportunity to fill a huge gap in learning. In response, we put together a four-hour CME program on addiction medicine that was offered in a hybrid format, with over 200 physicians attending. The program was a joint effort to provide high-quality education covering addiction, medication-assisted treatment and motivational interviewing to better equip primary care physicians and other clinicians to meet the needs of patients with substance use challenges. It was our first truly hybrid program, where online learners participated in discussions and breakout sessions. The program included exhibits by community resources around addiction and involved medical students, pharmacists, physicians and other clinical experts. We were very proud of the successful program that was created to meet a large need in a short amount of time.
   
• We are developing a compendium of slides for educators to use to address cultural and linguistic competency and implicit bias in their presentations.
   
• While we are proud of all our activities, we'd like to highlight the activity "Alternatives to Narcotics." This activity was not only well-attended by both physicians and non-physicians, but many learners provided exceptional feedback on changes they plan to make because of the education. In addition, the education assisted physicians with meeting Medication Access and Training Expansion Act requirements. We take pride in our efforts as CME professionals when we are able to connect education with better patient care.