cme cruise article

Learning in the lap of luxuryWritten by Mark Cardwell on May 19, 2011 for The Medical Post

Doctor's company offers CME cruises to colleagues

Dr. Martin Gerretsen organized his first CME cruise in 1996. Today the company offers about 20 a year, including exotic destinations such as the Galapagos

As career paths go, Dr. Martin Gerretsen couldn’t be happier with the road he’s travelling.

Make that the wave he’s surfing.

As co-owner of Sea Courses Cruises, a Vancouver company that offers continuing health education conferences on-board luxury ocean liners, Dr. Gerretsen earns a living while seeing the world.

“It’s pretty sweet,” he tells the Medical Post from his home in downtown Vancouver, just six blocks away from the city’s cruise ship terminal. “I love travelling almost as much as I do being a doctor.”

He learned that early in his medical career.

A Vancouver native and graduate of the University of British Columbia’s medical school, Dr. Gerretsen started to help develop CME courses and programs soon after he began practising family medicine in the suburb of Surrey in 1988. “I’ve always been interested in CME,” he says. “We all need it.”

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Around the same time, he also discovered a passion for cruise ship travel. He soon put two and two together and came up with one nifty idea. “I always thought that a cruise ship would make a great venue for a CME conference (and that) doctors would respond.”

The first cruise he organized in 1996-together with three classmates with whom he reconnected at a 10th anniversary medical school reunion the year before-proved him right. The seven-day excursion to Alaska attracted 30 paying customers for a conference that dealt with family practice issues such as asthma and other respiratory problems. Dr. Gerretsen was a presenter on that first trip, as well as a second several months later-a Caribbean CME cruise with 40 participants.

Following these initial successes, he quickly realized that to keep doctors coming back and to help a promising new business grow, he needed to hire more renowned speakers and develop top-notch CME programs on a wide range of topics.

No pharma sponsorship

From the get-go, he avoided pharmaceutical industry sponsorships, an approach that has proven popular with presenters and participants alike. “It makes a difference because people can speak their minds and say what they believe. People like that.”

That commitment to quality and independence, together with the unique itineraries on world-class ships that Dr. Gerretsen and company president Harvey Strydhorst plan and organize together, have paid off for Sea Courses Cruises. The company now runs about 20 CME cruises a year that attract an average of 100 to 120 participants each.

The price participants pay depends on many variables, including destination, duration, the cruise ship company and vessel, and the CME program offered (which affects tuition).

According to Dr. Gerretsen, conferences are conducted while ships are at sea, and once in port, participants are free to go ashore on their own.

Sometimes, though, they go on private excursions to local sites or to course-relevant medical facilities-such as the big general hospitals in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai that participants on a CME cruise to China visited in October. “That was a great trip,” says Dr. Gerretsen. “It gave people a chance to take a first-hand look at Eastern medicine.”

2011 targets

Cruises this year include what he calls “the usual lineup” of fair-weather destinations, including Alaska (May to September), the Caribbean (December to March) and the Mediterranean (May to November). Other trips this year include the Galapagos Islands (a 10-day trip at less than $10,000 for two people) and the Rhine River. (See full details.)

Next year, Sea Courses Cruises will offer its first trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and the Mekong River-an excursion that will include a visit to a vision-care clinic that Doctors Without Borders runs in a jungle setting.

According to Dr. Gerretsen, the demographics of CME cruise participants include “the full spectrum-from residents to retired physicians and everyone in between.” But he notes that the destination often plays a role in where certain participants will go. Younger doctors and their families, for example, prefer Caribbean cruises, while mid- to late-career doctors and their spouses are more numerous on trips to the Mediterranean and exotic places.

In addition to working part-time in addiction medicine in downtown Vancouver, Dr. Gerretsen spends full-time hours on building CME programs and travelling. As of this spring, he has taken 98 cruises on 20 different cruise lines and visited all seven continents.

Dr. Gerretsen notes that 40% of his company’s business is from repeat customers. In addition to the quality and originality of both programs and itineraries, he credits that return rate to both the longitudinal and interprofessional nature of his company’s programs. “Because they are travelling seven to 14 days, people get access to speakers (and) a chance to go more into depth while, say, relaxing by the pool with a drink.”



He adds that, depending on the theme of a program, family doctors and specialists also often have an opportunity to mingle.

Then there’s the cruise itself.

“What I love most about cruises is the ease of the whole process,” says Dr. Gerretsen. “Once you’re on board, everything is taken care of. You unpack once and that’s it (and) you go to great destinations and meet great people.

“What’s not to love?”

Dr. John Axler agrees. A family physician in downtown Toronto and course director for primary care at the University of Toronto, he has been both a moderator and a participant on a half-dozen trips with Sea Courses Cruises.

“Martin has a great product,” says Dr. Axler, who has been actively involved in CME for decades. “You get tremendous value for your money.”

Unlike the time and phone pressures that are omnipresent at regular CME settings such as hospitals, clinics, conference centres, universities or even restaurants, he says cruise ships offer a relaxed atmosphere that is conducive to learning.

“Cruising isn’t for everyone,” adds Dr. Axler. “But for those who like it, the spirit and context of Martin’s cruises are really terrific.”

Tags: CME, Cruise, travel



cme cruise article

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