Mission & Responsibilities
Vision
A world where our community of educators supports clinicians in delivering optimal healthcare for all.
Mission
To assure and advance quality learning for healthcare professionals that drives improvements in patient care.
Strategic Plan 2022-2026:Transforming Education to Improve Health
The ACCME Strategic Plan 2022–2026, Thriving Together: Accelerate Learning, Change, and Growth in Healthcare, addresses our interconnected opportunities and challenges and aims to promote an even more vibrant and thriving accredited continuing education enterprise.
The strategic plan comprises five priority areas:
- Strategic Goal 1: Act with Integrity
- Strategic Goal 2: Advance Excellence in Accredited Continuing Education
- Strategic Goal 3: Provide Exemplary Service
- Strategic Goal 4: Promote Diversity and Inclusion
- Strategic Goal 5: Demonstrate the Power of Collaboration
We believe that together with our staff, leadership, colleagues in the CME community, and our stakeholders across the health system, we can realize our shared vision of leveraging the power of education to improve the quality of care for the patients and communities we serve.
Our Primary Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities of the ACCME are to:
- Serve as the body accrediting institutions and organizations offering continuing medical education.
- Serve as the body recognizing institutions and organizations offering continuing medical education accreditation.
- Develop criteria for evaluation of both educational programs and their activities by which ACCME and state accrediting bodies will accredit institutions and organizations and be responsible for assuring compliance with these standards.
- Develop, or foster the development of, methods for measuring the effectiveness of continuing medical education and its accreditation, particularly in its relationship to supporting quality patient care and the continuum of medical education.
- Recommend and initiate studies for improving the organization and processes of continuing medical education and its accreditation.
- Review and assess developments in continuing medical education’s support of quality health.
- Review periodically its role in continuing medical education to ensure it remains responsive to public and professional needs.
The ACCME fulfills its mission by maintaining a voluntary self-regulated system for accrediting CME providers and a peer-review process responsive to changes in medical education and the health care delivery system.
How We Make Accreditation Decisions
The ACCME has a rigorous, multilevel process for making accreditation and reaccreditation decisions. These decisions are made three times a year. Accreditation decisions are determined through a review by two ACCME committees: first, the Accreditation Review Committee (ARC), and second, the Decision Committee of the Board of Directors. Throughout the process, ACCME staff members provide support and guidance to committee members.
