How the Continuing Education Office at NOSM Revolutionized Their Event Management

Challenges Before Fourwaves

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) University’s Continuing Education and Professional Development (CEPD) Office organizes various educational and professional development events for clinicians, educators, and scholars. 

Some of their most notable events include the Northern Constellation Conference, which features sub-events like Northern Lights and simulation sessions. These events involve complex workflows, requiring seamless registration, abstract management, and financial processes.

Melissa Rye, CEPD Events Coordinator, and Julie Colquhoun, CEPD Accreditation Coordinator, play critical roles in ensuring these events run smoothly. Melissa has been with NOSM University for over eight years, overseeing event execution, while Julie focuses on accreditation and quality assurance for continuing education programs. 

Both professionals are well aware of the need for an efficient, user-friendly platform to manage their complex events.

The ability to centralize everything has been a game changer for us. Our process is finally streamlined.

Julie Colquhoun

CEPD Accreditation Coordinator, NOSM

Before Fourwaves, event management was a challenge:

• The internal registration system used at NOSM was manual and cumbersome, causing frustration and inefficiencies.
• Large events relied on paper-based abstract submissions, making tracking and reviewing difficult and time-consuming.
• Hybrid events posed logistical issues, such as recharging fees during registration edits.
• The team struggled with managing multiple registrations and maintaining consistent URLs for recurring events.
• There was a lack of centralized tools, making abstract review disjointed and difficult for reviewers.

Why Fourwaves?

The CEPD team at NOSM University needed a platform that could address these challenges while remaining user-friendly, cost-effective, and scalable for a wide range of event types.

Key reasons they chose Fourwaves

• Fourwaves offers seamless registration and abstract submissions, which solved many of the issues faced by the CEPD team.
• User-friendly: Fourwaves empowers event chairs to easily make changes without complicated steps.
• A one-stop-shop solution: Fourwaves handles everything from registration to financial processing, all in one platform.
• Reliability for recurring events: Using consistent URLs for events like the Palliative Care Conference save time and effort.
• Secure and efficient payments: Switching to Fourwaves means no more manual financial tracking, payments can now go directly to their bank account using secure technology.

How NOSM University Leveraged Fourwaves

Since transitioning to Fourwaves, NOSM University has significantly improved its event management workflows.

These are the key features they now rely on:

• Abstract management: A seamless submission and review process with centralized assessment and scoring.
• Registration system: A much-improved system that eliminated inefficiencies the team was dealing with from the previous solution.
• Secure payment processing: Payments now flow directly to the bank, reducing administrative workload and improving the checkout experience for event participants.
• Custom merchandise sales: Selling items like event T-shirts became easier, with conditional logic maintained across registrations.
• Hybrid event support: Handling multiple event formats, including sub-events, with separate but interconnected registrations.

Fourwaves keeps getting better without disrupting what we already have. The constant updates and support are above and beyond.

Julie Colquhoun

Accreditation Coordinator, NOSM

Measurable Results and Real Impact

The CEPD team at NOSM University have experienced tangible improvements since implementing Fourwaves.

• Time saved: Managing registration and abstract reviews is now significantly faster.
• Improved participant satisfaction: Attendees appreciate the smoother registration and payment experience.
• Financial efficiency: Payments are processed securely without manual intervention, reducing the changes of human-error.
• Event scalability: The team can now expand events and incorporate more simulations.

Continuing to Choose Fourwaves

As NOSM University expands its CEPD event offerings, Fourwaves remains a critical partner in ensuring success. The CEPD team plans to integrate more events for accreditation purposes, relying on Fourwaves to handle complex multi-registration needs.

About NOSM University

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) made history by becoming Canada’s first independent medical university — now known as NOSM University — on April 1, 2022. NOSM University is one of the greatest medical education success stories of Canada. Born of a grassroots movement, NOSM University is a made-in-the-North solution to regional health care inequalities. Its internationally recognized distributed, community-engaged learning (DCEL) model is distinctive and has grown into something extraordinary.