I love a good shortcut.  There's a shortcut on my way home from work that simply makes sense for me.  It cuts about 5 minutes from the traditional route and uses residential streets versus the highway.  A shortcut, however, is a matter of perspective.  Some may look at a map and say I take a shortcut - I look at the map and say, "This is the most logical way home - therefore it is not a shortcut.  It is simply the right way to go home."

I've spoken in the past about EtQ's annual User Conference, mostly about how beneficial it is to our customers and how much knowledge is shared.  But what I never get to mention is that it completely exhausts me.  As one of the organizers for the event, it is like planning a wedding - every year.  So in the months, weeks and days leading up to the event, there is a frenetic pace in the office.  This is followed by the often-surreal rapid fire of event management that ensues the whole week long.  Days blend together, sessions become a blur.  Lunch is dinner, dinner is breakfast, and breakfast is missing...where did it go?  So, for the customers it is a fantastic, energizing and exciting event - but for me, it's a completely different kind of week.

We just recently completed a webinar on the automated Quality Management System this week, and while there were a few minor hiccups, we can call it a success in our book.  One of the things that struck me was we had four speakers in the webinar, all from different regions of the world.  Yet we were able to collaborate fairly seamlessly - four organizations working in tandem to tell our attendees about Quality Management Software.

I have to admit, I was hoping to post a blog today announcing the final rule date for the Electronic Medical Device Reporting (eMDR).  Sadly, after much calling, emailing and searching, I came up with, "We don't know - hopefully the end of 2011".  This would sound encouraging, except I've heard that story before.