About CME and CME Credit
- The Benefit and Value of CME
- CME Content and Requirements
- About CME Credits and Certificates of Attendance
- CME Accreditation and Authority
- CME Activity Formats data
- CME Activity Participation data
- CME Hourly Requirement in TN
To Physicians and other clinical medical professionals - Attending CME activities is beneficial and valuable to physicians and other medical professionals because it is required in order to maintain medical licensure and certification, is a source of constant improvement that ultimately improves their medical practice, and keeps them up-to-date on the latest technologies, advancements, treatments, etc. Speaking at CME activities can also be a great stage for clinical medical professionals to share their expertise and increase their distinction in their specialty.
To Departments within an Organization - Sending staff to CME activities improves the knowledge, competence, performance and patient outcomes of staff and shows support to their professional development needs, which helps retain them. Additionally, hosting CME programs is a great way for departments to earn physician attendance and increase the visibility and credibility of the department.
Continuing Medical Education defined - Continuing medical education (CME) is continuing education or professional development for physicians. By definition, "[CME] consists of educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession".
CME Content - The content of CME is that body of knowledge and skills generally recognized and accepted by the profession as within the basic medical sciences, the discipline of clinical medicine, and the provision of health care to the public.
CME Content Requirements - Continuing Medical Education must be: 1) Designed Specifically for your Physicians – Your CME activity must address shortcomings in the current professional practice of your target audience of physicians. 2) Educational - The content and presentation must promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest. 3) Evidence-Based - All recommendations involving clinical medicine must be based on evidence that is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients. All scientific research referred to, reported or used in support or justification of a patient care recommendation must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis. 4) Free from Promotion - The content and presentation must promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.
About CME/CE Credits and Certificates of Attendance
AMA PRA Category 1 Credit - AMA PRA Category 1 Credit (Category 1 CreditTM towards the American Medical Association Physician's Recognition Award) is the standard continuing education currency for physicians, and is required by state licensing boards for renewing medical licensure and is recognized by all U.S. jurisdictions. Certifying your educational activity for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits demonstrates the medical educational validity of the activity - and its value to physicians - in a way that is favorable when applying for other types of CME credit. AMA PRA Category 1 Credit activities may be approved as AAFP Prescribed credit, AAP credit, ACEP Category 1 credit, ACOG cognate credit, AAPA credit, and AOA Category 2-B credit.
Certificates of Attendance for non-physicians - The UTCOM issues certificates of participation to non-physicians for participating in CME activities, and these certificates count as continuing education for non-physicians. The UTCOM designates CEU's using the national standard that 1 live hour of educational instruction is awarded .1 CEU. AMA PRA Category 1 Credits may be approved as AAP credit, ACEP Category 1 credit, ACOG cognate credit, AAPA credit, and AOA Category 2-B credit.
CME Accreditation and Authority
The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) (www.accme.org) is the organization that accredits organizations to provide continuing medical education to physicians.
CME activities are most often live activities, but they can also be pre-recorded video, written and audio presentations. CME usually takes the form of conferences where a speaker educates an audience of physicians on a medical topic or where a group of physicians discusses their current medical cases or medical journals, but it also includes a physician reviewing written, audio and video CME publications.
Although most CME Activities are Courses, most Partcipation in CME activities does not take place through CME courses. Rather, it takes place through Internet Enduring Materials and Regularly-scheduled Series.
The state of Tennessee requires physicians to attend 40 hours of CME every two years in order to maintain licensure and certification, but different states have different CME hourly requirements.