ACCMEData ReportingPARSRelease Notes

Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) Release Notes

The following is a brief, up-to-date summary of PARS enhancements, with links to relevant FAQs, for your quick reference. Note that because PARS is an online application, PARS enhancements are available immediately to all users; no downloads are required to ensure that you are using the most up to date version of PARS.

Date of Implementation

February 9, 2024

  • PARS performs a credit match – resulting in the creation of a CME credit that corresponds to the MOC/CC learner credit reported for any collaborating certifying board. This process will be performed weekly.

December 14, 2023

  • PARS performs a credit match – resulting in the creation of a CME credit that corresponds to the MOC/CC learner credit reported for any collaborating certifying board. 

November 15, 2023

  • PARS performs a credit match – resulting in the creation of a CME credit that corresponds to the MOC/CC learner credit reported for any collaborating certifying board. 

August 31, 2023

  • Began creating CME credits for state licensing boards based on Maintenance of Certification/Continuing Certification (MOC/CC) credits previously reported for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP). MOC/CC credits with completion dates between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2022, appeared as CME credits in the Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) in mid-August.
  • Watch for announcements about these additional steps coming soon:
    • MOC/CC to CME credit creation on a regular schedule and for additional certifying boards.
    • CME credits reported for a physician in one state will be created for any other state in which the physician is currently licensed.

March 1, 2021

  • Added functionality to register CME activities to offer American Board of Surgery CC points through web form, XML batch upload, and ACCME PARS web services.

October 19, 2020

  • The American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) announced that beginning in 2021, Internet searching and learning activities will count for ABP Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit. Accredited CME providers can now register Internet searching and learning activities with a start date of January 1, 2021 or later in PARS. Activities with start dates in 2020 are not eligible.
  • The American Board of Pathology (ABPath) discontinued the self-assessment component of its Continuing Certification program as of January 1, 2021. For 2021 activities, self-assessment (SAM) credit will no longer be an option for credit types when registering the activity in PARS. 

April 23, 2020

  • The American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) previously had a requirement in place that prevented an activity from being registered for both Improvement in Medical Practice and Patient Safety. The ABO has lifted that constraint and activities can now be registered for both Improvement in Medical Practice and Patient Safety, in PARS.

February 12, 2020 

  • PARS will now complete a line by line review of batch upload files. The uploaded file will be processed, and users will be notified of learner records that need to be corrected via both the UI interface and with a downloadable error report.
  • Learner records with a successful match will be processed and will be available for review via a downloadable report (PDF).
  • PARS will now accept up to 2,500 learner records in a single file. The previous limitation was 1,000 records.
  • PARS will display a confirmation message if a duplicate file is uploaded to help ensure that the same file is not uploaded twice by accident.
  • Batch upload files will be processed offline (in the background) and will return an email notification when the file has completed processing. 
  • PARS will now provide an upload history page that will display learner data submission uploads from the previous 30 days.

January 23, 2020

  • The PARS accreditation decision placard now displays a provider’s accreditation status and the accreditation term expiration date. This enhancement is across all tenants, ACCME, SMS, and Joint Accreditation.
  • The ACCME Website Contact type was configured so the provider can designate one person to this role at a time.

October 31, 2019

  • Added three new (optional) contact types in PARS: ACCME website contact, technical contact, and medical director.  

August 9, 2019

  • Adjusted cut-off dates within the system to allow learner reporting for the current and immediately past reporting year.

July 12, 2019

Enhancements:

  • Improved visibility of text display on the PARS web form, so that active text and available options appear as blue, rather than an inactive gray.
  • Updated enhanced help/guidance text on several fields.
  • Added the activity end date on the learner summary page, for easy reference. 
  • Updated functionality to notify providers via email about rejected learner completion records when submitting data for the boards with LRS web integrations.

 Fixes:

  • Improved functionality to better recognize email changes for providers with multiple organization affiliations.

March 14, 2019

  • Added functionality to report learner completion data for the FDA’s Opioid Analgesic REMS program through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS web services.

February 20, 2019

  • Enabled functionality to register activities for Opioid Analgesic REMS via the PARS web interface.

January 22, 2019

  • Added functionality to report learner completion data for American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) MOC credits through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS web services.

January 7, 2019

Enhancements:

  • Updated menu icons.
  • New user interface for organization and people menu with improved filtering/sorting.
  • Improved person profile layout when adding a new contact or group affiliation.
  • Enabled functionality for all providers to view their Decision Report in a PDF Format.
  • Updated Provider and Volunteer Dashboards to provide information relevant to the persona(s). User will only see forms, notifications, and other items relevant to their role as a provider or volunteer.
  • Implemented functionality to require the user to set one contact as ‘Primary’ when none has been assigned. Also prevents a Primary Contact from being deselected when editing or archiving a Primary Contact.
  • Improved visibility of checkmarks when selecting interview(s).
  • Implemented functionality for new Progress Report Process.
  • Removed the ‘Save to PDF’ button to simplify printing assessments.
  • Added functionality for description of the process listing to be displayed on provider dashboard.
  • Improved functionality for interview detail displayed for provider and volunteer dashboards.

Fixes:

  • Ability to delete uploaded documents.
  • Improved formatting for Performance in Practice assessment.
  • Improved formatting for print to PDF export.
  • Improved ability to have multiple affiliations per user.
  • Improved performance for loading interview widget on volunteer dashboard.
  • Improved document reference display.
  • Improved functionality for group affiliations.
  • Ability for surveyors to sign up for multiple interviews.

November 26, 2018

  • Added functionality to register CME activities to offer American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) MOC points through web form, XML batch upload, and ACCME PARS web services.
  • Added functionality for reporting North Carolina Medical Board learner completion data.  The providers who have agreed to participate in the pilot project to report CME activity completions for Tennessee licensure purposes will be able to enter this data through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS web services.

November 13, 2018

  • Added functionality to report learner completion data for American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (ABOHNS) MOC credits through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS web services.

July 30, 2018

  • Re-designed the user interface to improve reporting learner completion data for activities registered for MOC for multiple Boards.
  • Added functionality to report learner completion data for American Board of Pathology MOC credits through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS web services.
  • Added functionality to register CME activities to offer American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (ABOHNS) MOC points through web form, XML batch upload, and ACCME PARS web services.
  • Add functionality for reporting Tennessee Board of Registration in Medicine learner completion data.  The providers who have agreed to participate in the pilot project to report CME activity completions for Tennessee licensure purposes will be able to enter this data through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS web services.

March 13, 2018

  • Added functionality to register CME activities to offer American Board of Pathology (ABPATH) MOC points through web form, XML batch upload, and ACCME PARS web services.

October 30, 2017

  • Deployed re-designed provider interfaces for managing organization and user information.
  • Added accreditation features to enable CME providers to manage the accreditation process and complete self-study and performance-in-practice materials online. 

January 1, 2017

  • Enabled functionality to report learner completion data for American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) MOC points through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS Web Services.

November 3, 2016

  • Added functionality to register CME activities to offer American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) MOCA 2.0 credits and American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) MOC points through web form, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS Web Services. 
  • Added functionality to report learner completion data for American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) MOCA credits through web form, tab-delimited batch upload, XML batch upload and ACCME PARS Web Services. 
  • Documentation for batch upload and web service features updated.

September 30, 2016

December 15, 2015

  • Added functionality to report learner completion data for American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) MOC points through web form, tab-delimited and XML batch uploads.
  • Added ACCME PARS Web Services functionality for reporting activity data, ABIM MOC activity registration, and ABIM MOC learner completion data.
  • Added downloadable report of activities registered for MOC.

August 12, 2015

  • Added a field to the REMS section of the Web-fill form for providers to report the RPC ID for RPC-funded ER/LA Opioid REMS activities. Please see this FAQ for more information about the RPC ID.
  • Added an additional category to the REMS section of the Web-fill form for reporting participants whose profession is unknown.

June 26, 2014

  • Beginning with the 2015 Reporting Year, removed the option to report “Advertising and exhibit income,” “Income from other sources,” and “Expenses” for each activity entered.
  • Beginning with the 2015 Reporting Year, removed the “Expenses” field from the Program Summary and replaced “Income from other sources” with “Total registration fees received,” “Total government monetary grants received,” and “Total private monetary donations received.”
  • Beginning with activity records in the 2015 Reporting Year, changed several fields from being optional to being required in order to close the record.  These fields include:
    • the number of AMA-PRA Category 1 Credits designated
    • the competencies that the activity was designed to address. 
    • the names of  joint providers of the activity (jointly-provided activities only)
    • the names of commercial supporters and the amount of monetary and/or type of in-kind support from each  (commercially-supported activities only). 
  • Changed labels and text in the system interface to reflect the use of the expressions “other learners” in place of “non-physicians” and “providership” in place of “sponsorship”.
  • Added new tab-delimited text and XML batch upload templates for use with activities assigned to Reporting Year 2015 to accommodate the changes described above. Please be sure to use the template appropriate to the Reporting Year of the activities that you are uploading to PARS.

January 23, 2014

  • For the 2014 Reporting Year, added an option for providers to identify which competencies an activity was designed to address. Available options include competencies of ACGME/ABMS, Institute of Medicine, Interprofessional Education Collaborative, and “Other.”
  • Added new tab-delimited text and XML batch upload templates for use with activities assigned to Reporting Year 2014 to accommodate the new competency fields.
  • Implemented modifications to improve the PARS user experience based on feedback from accredited providers, including:
    • improved navigation when searching for and editing activities using the Web-fill form
    • increased speed for generating user reports
    • added a function enabling providers to filter the “Download All Activities” report by reporting year

November 1, 2013

  • Added an option on the activity Web-fill form for providers to submit information about REMS CME activities and the ability to generating reports containing data about those activities. For more information about REMS and the role of the ACCME and accredited providers, please see the CME for FDA REMS page. 

January 17, 2013

  • Enhanced the activity Tab-Delimited Batch Upload process to automatically remove prohibited codes and characters from uploaded text files.  This change will reduce Tab-Delimited Batch Upload errors.

December 17, 2012

  • Changed the Organization Profile tab to dislay all users associated with an organization, including those who are not assigned as the Primary, Billing or CEO contact.

January 13, 2012

  • Added report “Download Summary of Closed Activities” on the Activities tab that sums data entered for all Closed activities for a specified Reporting Year, including financial data entered into Program Summary.

December 20, 2011

  • Added report “Download Activities Selected for Review” that is available to providers on the Activities tab when their accrediting organization has selected activities in support of the accreditation process.

July 28, 2011

  • Added the ability to delete more than one activity at a time. (see How do I delete more than one activity at a time? FAQ for more information.)
  • Added the ability to copy data from an existing activity into a new activity.
  • A system validation process was implemented to ensure that providers cannot “Attest” that the data for a Reporting Year is complete unless all activities for that Reporting Year are “closed” and all fields on the Program Summary have been completed.

June 15, 2011

  • Added pop-up screen when using “Add Activity” link or button for user to indicate Reporting Year for the activity(s) being added.
  • Added pop-up screen when using “Batch Upload Activities” link or button for user to indicate the Reporting Years for activity uploads.
  • Changed reporting of In-Kind Commercial Support for activities occurring in 2011 or later
    (see How do we report in-kind support? FAQ for additional information).
  • Added “Reporting Year 20XX” label (based on what year was selected) to Batch Upload screen so that users can verify that they are uploading to the correct range of years.
  • Added notification to “Attestation” section of Program Summary page to inform users that they will no longer be able to edit activity information for the current reporting year once the Attestation button is clicked.
  • Added a notification when user attempts to add an activity to a Reporting Year for which the Attestation has already been completed. 
  • Removed the option to add an activity for reporting years more than one year in advance.
  • Added the following help links:
  • “Total Monetary Amount Received” for activities in 2011 Reporting Year and later,
  • “Total Value of Commercial Support Received (monetary or in-kind)?” for activities in 2010 Reporting Year and before, on Batch Upload pages to explain changes in Batch Uploading for 2011 Reporting Year and later, and
  • in “Attestation” Section
  • Renamed existing tab-delimited text and XML batch upload templates to reflect their use with activities assigned to Reporting Years 2010 and earlier. NOTE: Please do not use these templates for activities assigned to Reporting Years 2011 and beyond.
  • Added new tab-delimited text and XML batch upload templates for use with activities assigned to Reporting Year 2011. NOTE: Please do not use 2010 templates for activities assigned to Reporting Years 2011 and beyond.