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Important Considerations in Developing an Application for CME Category I Credits

The Essentials and Guidelines for Accreditation

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education has developed seven Essentials with accompanying guidelines which identify certain elements of organization, structure, and method which appear to contribute significantly to the development of continuing medical education. The Essentials define those requirements which a sponsor must substantially meet for accreditation. (See Appendix #4)

Needs Assessment

ACCME Essential #2 "The sponsor shall have established procedures for identifying and analyzing continuing medical education needs and interests of prospective participants." Obviously, if the goal of the CME activity is to fulfill educational needs of physicians, it is important to know what needs to address. In practice it is a formidable task, considering that each activity attracts many with variable educational requirements. Some of the procedures employed to identify needs include:

• Questionnaire survey of prospective participants
• Focus group survey of prospective participants
• Analysis of self-assessment examination results
• Epidemiological data (e.g. outcomes data from hospital information systems)
• Patient care audits (e.g. data from quality improvement programs)
• Literature searches
• Consensus of experts in the field
• Course evaluations from previous activities

Objectives

ACCME Essential #3 states "The sponsor shall have explicit objectives for each CME activity". The sponsor shall:

1. State the educational need(s) which the activity addresses
2. Indicate the physicians for whom the activity is designed
3. List any special background requirements of the prospective participants
4. Highlight the instructional content and/or expected learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and/or attitudes
5. Make these objectives known to prospective participants

Activity Evaluation

ACCME Essential #5 states "The sponsor shall evaluate the effectiveness of its overall continuing medical education program and of its component activities, and utilize this information in its CME planning".

Evaluations must assess:

• The extent to which the educational objectives were met
• The quality of the educational process
• The participant's perception of enhanced professional effectiveness

The Essentials require that the sponsor demonstrate that evaluations are used in planning subsequent CME activities.

Target Audience

Planning a CME activity must include the identification of the physician group(s) the course is designed to reach.

Educational Design

Final decisions about course content must take into account the target audience, course length and format. In general, CME activities tend to rely too heavily on lecture driven formats which fail to involve participants actively in the learning process. Use of audience response systems and/or interactive small group workshops which utilize case based approaches and problem solving should be included as options to increase audience participation.

Promotional Materials

Brochures and journal announcements are used to make the appropriate physician population aware of the activity. Information should include the target audience, course objectives and educational design. The following accreditation statement , credit designation statement and disclosure statement must be included verbatim.

Accreditation Statement

The Medical University of South Carolina is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation Statement:

The Medical University of South Carolina designates this educational activity for a maximum of (or "for up to")     hours in Category 1 credit towards the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity.

The number of credit hours will be determined by the Office of CME, based upon hours of educational instruction.

Disclosure statement

The Medical University of South Carolina adheres to ACCME standards regarding industry support of continuing medical education and disclosure of faculty and commercial support relationships, if any, will be made known at the conference.

All promotional materials must be reviewed and approved by the Office of CME prior to printing and distribution.

Standards for Commercial Support

This document has been developed by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to guide sponsors and supporting companies when financial support is received for continuing medical education activities. The purpose of these Standards is to describe appropriate behavior of accredited sponsors in planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating certitifed CME activities for which commercial support is received. (Appendix #5)

Disclosure Statements

Each speaker must complete a disclosure statement. Activity participants must be informed when speakers disclose a possible conflict of interest, either verbally prior to the presentation (during speaker introduction) or in printed materials distributed to the audience (e.g. conference syllabus). A copy of the disclosure statement must be submitted to the Office of CME along with other follow-up documentation. A copy of the disclosure statement is included under Appendix #6.

Commercial Support Statement

All commercial support must be acknowledged, and an agreement signed by the Course Director, Department Chair, Associate Dean for CME and the Commercial Representative (Appendix #7). The Office of CME must maintain the agreement or letter accompanying support with other activity records. Support should be acknowledged in promotional materials and handouts.

Evaluation Summaries

Summaries are developed from evaluation forms completed by activity participants. Summaries provide important information on whether stated course objectives were met, the quality of instruction, adequacy of printed materials and overall perception of activity impact. An evaluation summary must be submitted to the Office of CME before credit is conferred. (See Appendix #8).

Attendance Rosters

Attendance rosters are developed from registration forms and sign-in attendance sheets. For in-house and recurrent activities a listing with addresses of faculty who regularly attend is submitted with the original sign-in sheets. This must be submitted to the Office of CME before credit is conferred. For extramural CME activities (conferences, symposia, workshops, etc.) an original sign-in sheet for each day with the typed roster of names and addresses must be submitted to the Office of CME prior to conferring credit. The office tracks participants through their social security number, last name and address to insure that each participant receives a credit letter (cumulative or individual conference basis) for their attendance.

Financial Summary

The summary gives an overall accounting of revenues and expenditures associated with the activity, and must be submitted to the Office of CME before credit is conferred.

Co-Sponsorship

Defined by ACCME as an activity developed by two accredited sponsors. The activity must be organized and designed by a fulltime faculty member of the College of Medicine. Approval of co-sponsored activities initiated by a faculty member requires approval of the Associate Dean for CME.

Joint Sponsorship

Defined by ACCME as an activity developed by two sponsors only one of whom is accredited. A College of Medicine fulltime faculty member must be involved in the organization and design of the activity and it must be managed by the Office of CME. All jointly sponsored activities require the approval of the CME Advisory Committee.

Certificates

Attendance certificates are issued by the Office of CME following the activity when all documentation is received. Charges for credit certificates may be included in the registration fee. When participants are required to pay separately for certificates they should be notified in advance of registration that this will be an additional charge. Full time faculty requesting annual letters documenting cumulative credit during fiscal year(s) receive 1 annual letter at no charge. Other letters requested in the same year will carry a fee.

Follow-up documentation required after completion of the activity:

1. Participant information forms with names, addresses, and social security numbers (disk if possible).
2. Original sign-in attendance sheets for each day of the activity.
3. Evaluation summary
4. Complete financial summary detailing all revenues/expenses

No credit is conferred prior to receipt and verification of documentation.