From Distance to Dialogue: Using Small-Group Learning to Sustain Human Connection in Future-Ready CPD
- 1DKBmed LLC, Brooklyn, NY, USA
- 2RealCME/Health Course, New York, NY, USA
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic changed continuing professional development/continuing medical education by rapidly increasing deployment of digital education platforms. Today, digital delivery technologies have enabled broader reach than ever before. Yet these same technologies are often blamed for weakening the human connection essential for effective learning. This brief report describes how the small-group, live-virtual formats ECHO and Gather-ed use video conference technology (eg, Zoom) not merely as a distribution channel but as a deliberate architecture for interactivity, peer exchange, and sustained mentorship between learners and subject matter experts. Drawing on Project ECHO's hub-and-spoke, case-based "all teach, all learn" philosophy and Gather-Ed's facilitated peer-based social learning model, our experience, as illustrated in the report, demonstrates that structured small-group virtual learning reconciles the scalability demanded by modern continuing professional development with the relational engagement that participants and patients ultimately need.
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BibTeX
@article{beals2026from,
title = {{From Distance to Dialogue: Using Small-Group Learning to Sustain Human Connection in Future-Ready CPD}},
author = {Dean Beals and Stan Pogroszewski and Lesley Simon and Rachel Deerr and Steven Haimowitz},
journal = {Journal of CME},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1080/28338073.2026.2752717},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13726295},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - From Distance to Dialogue: Using Small-Group Learning to Sustain Human Connection in Future-Ready CPD
AU - Dean Beals
AU - Stan Pogroszewski
AU - Lesley Simon
AU - Rachel Deerr
AU - Steven Haimowitz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Journal of CME
DO - 10.1080/28338073.2026.2752717
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13726295
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic changed continuing professional development/continuing medical education by rapidly increasing deployment of digital education platforms. Today, digital delivery technologies have enabled broader reach than ever before. Yet these same technologies are often blamed for weakening the human connection essential for effective learning. This brief report describes how the small-group, live-virtual formats ECHO and Gather-ed use video conference technology (eg, Zoom) not merely as a distribution channel but as a deliberate architecture for interactivity, peer exchange, and sustained mentorship between learners and subject matter experts. Drawing on Project ECHO's hub-and-spoke, case-based "all teach, all learn" philosophy and Gather-Ed's facilitated peer-based social learning model, our experience, as illustrated in the report, demonstrates that structured small-group virtual learning reconciles the scalability demanded by modern continuing professional development with the relational engagement that participants and patients ultimately need.
SN - 2833-8073
ER -