CME Overview

What is CME?

Continuing medical education (CME) is professional development for physicians. By definition, "[CME] consists of educational activities that serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills & professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession." Read more about the CME definition, content requirements, etc.

Why is CME Important?

CME is important & valuable to physicians and other medical professionals because it is required in order to maintain medical licensure & certification, improves their medical practice, and keeps them up-to-date with medical advancements for their medical practice. CME also is beneficial to departments, organizations & employers because it strengthens their workforce and is an opportunity to show support their medical professionals. CME is beneficial at the city, county, state & national levels, because medical outcomes are improved for the people in those communities and overall health is improved.  Read more about how CME benefits the physician, other medical professionals, department, organization, employer, city and state.

About CME Activities

Activity Type: CME activities can be live or pre-recorded (on-demand) materials such video & audio presentations or written materials in printed or digital formats. CME Activities. Participation Type: CME learners can participate in-person or remotely (e.g., Zoom virtual video meetings). In-person CME activities are usually conferences where an expert teaches on a medical topic or where a group of physicians discusses their current medical cases or medical journals, and on-demand CME activities are usually a physician reviewing video, audio or written CME content in their own time and by themselves or in a group.  Read more about the format of CME activities.

Content Areas

CME has established a framework based on the core competencies established by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in its Maintenance of Certification (MOC) efforts.  Those competencies include patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice. In addition, content is drawn from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Aims including patient care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable & patient-centered.