American Board of Internal Medicine and Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education Announce Collaboration in Support of Physician Lifelong Learning

August 12, 2015 (PRLEAP.COM) Health News
Philadelphia, PA, and Chicago, IL, August 12, 2015 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) are pleased to announce a collaboration to support physicians who are engaged in lifelong learning by enabling them to use those activities in completion of requirements for ABIM's Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. This collaboration will expand the options available to physicians to receive MOC credit and will enable continuing medical education (CME) providers to offer more lifelong learning options with MOC credit to internists and subspecialists.

ABIM and ACCME share a commitment to supporting physicians' continuing professional development and to improving physicians' performance and their care of patients. The organizations pursued this collaboration in response to the needs and requests of physicians and CME providers who are focused on supporting physicians' desire to engage in lifelong learning and improvement.

Listening to Stakeholders
ABIM diplomates already use participation in accredited CME to meet licensure and other professional obligations. ABIM and ACCME want to facilitate ABIM diplomates' ability to use high-quality CME for MOC to demonstrate that they are staying current with medical knowledge and practice as well.

ABIM will no longer require CME providers to submit applications for activity approval and peer review to ABIM. Instead, accredited CME providers will be able to use one unified shared system to record information about CME and ABIM MOC activities. All accredited CME providers in the ACCME system already use the ACCME Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) to enter data about each of their CME activities. With this collaboration, CME providers will also be able to use PARS to register activities for ABIM MOC. As part of this registration process, providers can attest to compliance with ABIM-specific requirements for the Medical Knowledge Assessment Recognition Program and submit learner data.

"While ABIM already offers more than 300 medical knowledge options to physicians engaged in MOC, our diplomates have asked for a more streamlined process to enable them to more seamlessly combine their ongoing educational activities with MOC requirements," said Richard J. Baron MD, President and CEO of ABIM. "By collaborating with ACCME, ABIM will open the door to even more options for physicians engaged in MOC and will allow them to get MOC credit for high-quality CME activities they are already doing."

ABIM and ACCME will begin beta testing the technology later this month, and they expect to have the process open for accredited CME providers that meet standards set by ABIM by the end of 2015. The ACCME will maintain a list of activities that have met ABIM requirements and are registered for MOC credit. This list will be publicly available on the ACCME website, providing a one-stop resource for ABIM diplomates seeking to earn ABIM MOC credits by participating in accredited CME. Data verifying that diplomates have completed the activity will be communicated through PARS to ABIM.

This collaboration offers additional choices for CME providers and internists without adding any new ACCME requirements. Diplomates have the option to pursue CME activities that have been registered for MOC credit, while ACCME providers have the option-but are not required-to offer accredited CME that meets ABIM MOC requirements and to submit activity and learner data through PARS to ABIM.

"The ACCME has long supported the goals of MOC and the alignment of accredited CME and MOC. We share a common mission to facilitate the continuing professional development of physicians. We celebrate this collaboration because it will make a real and meaningful difference to physicians and educators who are working every day to improve healthcare in their communities. This collaboration will generate many more opportunities for accredited CME providers to serve as a strategic resource by delivering relevant, effective, independent, practice-based education that counts for MOC. I look forward to working together with ABIM, our community of accredited CME providers, and our community of diplomates to leverage the power of education to drive quality in our medical profession and improve care for the patients we serve," said Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, ACCME.


About ABIM
For more than 75 years, certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has stood for the highest standard in internal medicine and its 20 subspecialties and has meant that internists have demonstrated – to their peers and to the public – that they have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes essential for the delivery of excellent patient care. ABIM is not a membership society, but a non-profit, independent evaluation organization. Our accountability is both to the profession of medicine and to the public. ABIM is a member of the American Board of Medical Specialties. For additional updates, follow ABIM on Facebook and Twitter. ABIM is committed to engaging the internal medicine community so that its programs reflect what physicians in practice today are doing. Subscribe to the ABIM blog for updates and to learn about opportunities to provide input and take part in this work.

About ACCME
The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that is responsible for accrediting institutions that offer continuing medical education (CME) through a voluntary, self-regulatory system. The ACCME also has a system for recognizing state medical societies as accreditors for local organizations offering CME.

The ACCME's mission is to identify, develop, and promote standards for quality CME that improves healthcare for patients and their communities. There are approximately 1,900 accredited CME providers within the ACCME System that offer more than 147,000 activities each year, comprising more than one million hours of instruction and including more than 25 million interactions with physicians and other healthcare professionals.

The ACCME's member organizations-which represent the profession of medicine and include physician licensing and credentialing bodies-are the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, and the Federation of State Medical Boards of the US, Inc.

For more information, visit www.accme.org.

Share Article