In today’s rapidly evolving world, the significance of continuous learning cannot be overstated, be it professionals from any industry. This is particularly true for healthcare professionals, whose ability to provide effective services relies heavily on the continuous enhancement of their knowledge and skills. As the demand for quality healthcare continues to grow, professionals in the medical field must stay updated with the latest advancements and best practices in order to deliver optimal care to their patients.
COR2ED, a renowned provider in the healthcare industry, recognizes the critical role that continuous learning plays in the success of healthcare professionals (HCPs). With their expertise and dedication, COR2ED has become a trusted partner for professionals seeking to enhance their knowledge and ensure the highest level of effectiveness at work.
Founded in 2012 by Dr. Froukje Sosef and Dr. Antoine Lacombe, COR2ED is dedicated to delivering high-quality medical education to healthcare professionals. With a consistent commitment to fair, balanced, and up-to-date education, COR2ED has earned a reputation as a leading provider of Continuing Medical Education (CME). Their cutting-edge and captivating programmes have positioned them among the top CME providers in the industry.
Over the course of the past decade, COR2ED has successfully conducted more than 500 educational programmes benefiting over half a million HCPs globally. This showcases its commitment to advancing medical knowledge and improving patient care.
Let us take you through the journey of COR2ED in becoming a leading CME provider, its unique process, and its vision for expansion. Here are some highlights from our interview with the founders:
Brief us about yourself and your journey to create the company.
Froukje is a Dutch Medical Doctor and Antoine is a French Pharmacist, they started their career in Pharmaceutical companies (Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Roche) in local, regional, and global roles. Antoine and Froukje met while working for AstraZeneca Global in the UK, and later they met again when working for Roche in Switzerland. Froukje was always on the Medical Affairs side and Antoine was working in Marketing.
Due to mutual respect for each other’s expertise, they always had a good collaboration and working relationship. With that knowledge, they decided in 2012 to together create COR2ED and embark on this entrepreneurial endeavor. 10 years later both are still very happy with the choice they made, COR2ED is now an established European-based CME provider with a global reach and wonderful staff.
How do you ensure that your continuing education activities are of high quality and relevant to medical and pharmacy professionals?
COR2ED is a member of the gCMEp (www.gcmep.org) Steering Group. The mission of this Good CME Practice group is to promote professionalism within the European CME provider community, by championing high standards in the development and delivery of CME in Europe. Obviously, we ensure the whole team adheres to the principles of gCMEp when delivering our high-quality independent education programmes. Our staff is highly-skilled, with profound knowledge and expertise – able to develop and deliver tailor-made educational programmes that we all are proud of.
In order to best understand and address the needs of HCPs within a specific therapeutic area, we work with groups of experts called ‘CONNECT’ groups. COR2ED launched the 1st group in this series in 2014. A CONNECT is a constant group of International Experts who identify the educational needs and develop impactful educational programmes (as a curriculum) within a specific therapeutic area dedicated to a well-defined audience.
Between 2014 and 2022, COR2ED has created 17 CONNECT groups covering various therapeutic areas. The first CONNECT group was established in 2014 so next year we will celebrate its 10th anniversary.
A good indicator that our programmes are indeed of high quality and relevant to medical, nurse, and pharmacy professionals is the fact that for most of our programmes, a collaboration with Medical Societies, Academic Groups, and/or Patient Advocacy Groups is in place.
These collaborations provide multiple benefits such as endorsement and validation of the scientific and clinical credibility of COR2ED’s programmes, and it improves the reach of the programmes – reaching the members of these organizations. COR2ED currently has over 60 active collaborations in place, and some of these organizations have even asked us for support to develop programmes on their behalf.
What types of continuing education activities do you offer?
COR2ED aims for all activities to be innovative and tailor-made for our different groups of learners: not only per therapeutic area but also different populations such as physicians, nurses, and patients.
The format of the education activity is chosen based on educational objectives, target audience, and desired educational outcomes. The format can be digital (such as Interactive Patient Case Video, Podcast, Mechanism of Action Video, Webinar, CME-accredited e-learning or micro-learning modules, Animated Video) or face-to-face (such as Preceptorship, Symposium, Stand-alone meeting, Master Class) but all face-to-face activities have a digital component to them as well.
As COR2ED aims to serve the educational needs of HCPs globally, we offer different types of CME credits.
How do you measure the effectiveness of your continuing education programmes in terms of improving patient outcomes?
For all programmes, COR2ED measures the educational outcomes as per Moore’s levels of CME outcomes. These levels measure how much our educational programmes impact HCP behavior and clinical practice changes.
These measurements are shared with our experts, collaborators, and other stakeholders in a report summarizing the reach, engagement, and impact.
What challenges or gaps exist within the industry? How does the company turn them into opportunities for growth?
Unfortunately, there is an absence of clear and consistent guidance from accreditation agencies in Europe, potentially leading to conflicting requirements for independence, accreditation, and use of funding when working with European-based supporters. As COR2ED is an active member of the gCMEp group, we continue to have discussions with the main European stakeholders and bring this issue to the agenda.
In addition, there are still many people working for pharmaceutical companies who are not aware of the concept of Independent Medical Education, and they do not consider it enough in their annual planning. To address this we make a real effort to educate and explain the concept and advantages of IME to people working for pharmaceutical companies.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who desire to venture into the industry?
DO IT! If you get enthusiastic about the idea of translating often complex scientific and clinical insights into a simple clinical message that is easy to understand and implement – then go for it. Make sure you have the correct mix of scientific understanding, commercial acumen, and an innovative & creative mindset.
COR2ED’s Comprehensive Coverage
Oncology
Hemato-oncology
Hematology
Cardiology
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Rare disease (Bone, liver, sarcoma)
Endocrinology
Pediatrics
Neonatology
Bone diseases
Medical Devices
What do Clients say about COR2ED?
- Participant: “Thank you so much for your nice presentations. Very interesting clinical cases and inspiring discussion on the chat!”
- Supporter: “Thanks, I just looked at both programmes all the way through and they are very nicely done”
- Clinical Expert: “It was really a pleasure to participate to this event. The team of COR2D is very professional and I would like to thank you all for that. I hope that we will other opportunities to work together in the near future.
- Clinical Expert: “The materials that came out of your team’s efforts are amazing and I am proud to have been a small part of them”
- Patient Advocacy Group “Thank you for sharing the video. It looks wonderful! I am so excited to hear that the two girls were so excited to participate. That bodes well for future progress! And I appreciate the translations are being made available. The inclusion efforts are very, very important. This is fantastic really happy to have our logo on this and cannot wait to start sharing”.
