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March 5th, 2010 – Washington, DC
 The American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy, a 2700 member professional medical association dedicated to allergic disorders, has selected Multiweb’s AlphaCME™ system for its association management, event planning and CME accreditation needs.
AlphaCME™ also drives AAOA’s new web site at http://www.aaoaf.org. All dues, membership, event registration, faculty disclosure and abstract submissions are collected through AlphaCME™, providing an integrated, simple approach for its membership.
According to executive director Jami Lucas, the system has surpassed their expectations. “We did a formal evaluation of several systems and compared features and overall flexibility and AlphaCME™ was the winner.”
AAOA’s members can now login to a single site and view or update their information, register for events, complete online evaluations, obtain CME transcripts, receipts for their dues and meetings, as well as many other features.
“The ability to collect financial disclosures for faculty and committee members and abstract authors is extremely important. As CME rules become more stringent, we needed a system that would automate the process of collecting and managing disclosures as well as linking them to different activities.”
According to Multiweb President Karl Wilkens, the new system is designed to make life easier for members and staff alike. “We are providing non-profits with a system that eases the burden of manual data collection. Collecting faculty disclosures and course evaluations, providing transcripts, CME certificates, or meeting and dues receipts are all very time consuming. AlphaCME™ makes those operations automatic and self-serve.
AlphaCME™ 3.0 also incorporates innovative technologies that put association staff in control. Wilkens - “When you look at the business operations for a non-profit medical society, much of it involves data collection. Surveys, course evaluations, requests from course directors, schedule changes and the like must be assembled – often from Excel, Email or an Access database. Staff end up managing lots of files in a variety of places and often, data will get lost in the shuffle.
In version 3.0 we have a system that allows the client to directly author and modify forms in a centralized web-based system using a very easy interface. Our experience with medical groups has been that each society approaches ACCME disclosures and other forms quite differently. Rather than customizing forms for every client, we wanted to provide a smarter, more flexible approach. Now they can add, remove or modify language and questions on their forms very easily. So our solution can allow client-driven customizations that are fast, flexible and integrated, rather than as a change order and associated fee as is the case with other systems.”
Events are another challenge for most non-profits because scheduling and speaker changes are so common. Usually, the ‘final’ printed program is not 100% in agreement with the event. But with the auto-publishing of agendas in AlphaCME™, this has changed. Lucas - “Our web site is now the instant, up-to-date reference for a meeting. We can also use the tools to work directly with course directors to flush out a meeting, in real time and see the results.”
The system also provides automatic publishing of faculty disclosures to the public web site as part of the meeting program– an important benefit since financial transparency in the CME world is expected and demanded. For a given meeting, all faculty are listed, along with a link that allows the user to view all financial relationships.
AlphaCME™ is a Software as a Service (SaS) application provided on an annual basis to its customers. The web-based application runs in any modern browser and provides a flexible model for licensing – using an enterprise license rather than on a per-seat or per-user basis. The system is updated regularly with new features and subscribers receive training on an on-going basis. The system is designed to be modular, providing groups with only the features they need. Event Registration, Abstracts, Faculty Disclosures, Content and Association management can be licensed separately or in combination.
About AAOA
The American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy (AAOA) was founded in 1941, and is one of the oldest and most experienced organizations in dealing with issues relating to allergic disorders. As a professional association, the AAOA represents over 2700 Board certified otolaryngologists and other health care providers who devote part of their practice to the diagnosis and treatment of allergic and other related disorders. As otolaryngologists, members have a unique expertise in the medical and surgical treatment of sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, and related disorders.
About Multiweb
A two-time winner of Adobe's MAX Award, MultiWeb is a premiere online solutions provider for healthcare education. Our award-winning products are in use by over 10,000 health care professionals around the world. For professional medical societies, our AlphaCME™ Suite uniquely ties together abstracts, presentation submissions, handout creation, speaker disclosures, and speaker scheduling with a growing list of pre-defined reports, easing society planning and documentation requirements for educational activities. Our AlphaCME™ membership system provides the foundation for all transactional activity, providing a simple web-based approach for society members to self-manage their account and financial information. For more information contact Karl Wilkens, Multiweb Communications, 20545 Center Ridge Road, Suite 435, Cleveland, Ohio 44116 – 440-333-4600. kwilkens@multiweb.com
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