Highlights

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) and the American Board of Surgery (ABS) are pleased to announce that, starting in February 2021, all accredited CME providers in the ACCME System and all providers accredited by Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ will be welcome to register CME activities that meet ABS Continuous Certification Program requirements. At that time, providers will be able to submit learner completion data in the Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS).

A Streamlined Process for CME Providers and ABS Diplomates

The process is similar to registering activities that meet the requirements of other certifying boards that are collaborating with the ACCME. Details are described in the CME for Maintenance of Certification Program Guide.

• No pre-approval needed: You are not required to submit applications to ABS to award CME credit that will count towards ABS Continuous Certification Program requirements.
• Effective date: You can register your 2021 activities for ABS Continuous Certification and report learner completions from February 2021 onward. You will not be able to report learner completions that took place before February 2021.
• Credit types: ABS will accept activities registered as Accredited CME and Self-Assessment (Accredited CME with Evaluation and Feedback). Any CME activity that is relevant to surgical practice can be registered. To grant Self-Assessment credit, providers will also need to inform learners about participation in the evaluation component and provide feedback to them about whether they met the requirements to earn Continuous Certification credit for the activity.
• Learner participation reporting: You are responsible for collecting the required individual learner completion data and submitting it into PARS. Learner completion data should be reported in PARS within 30 days of successful completion. Once in PARS, it will be transmitted directly from the ACCME to the ABS, simplifying the process for your members and ABS diplomates.
• CME Finder: Activities that you register in PARS for ABS Continuous Certification will appear in the CME Finder, a one-stop resource for physicians searching for accredited CME that meets the requirements for ABS Continuous Certification.

Resources

Please note that although the resources refer to Maintenance of Certification, they are applicable to the ABS Continuous Certification Program. Some boards use different terms to describe the process of maintaining certification. ABS uses Continuous Certification.

• CME that Counts for Maintenance of Certification webpage
• CME for Maintenance of Certification Program Guide: This unified guide includes the requirements that are common across all of the boards collaborating with the ACCME in one main section, followed by sections for the board-specific requirements for the ABS and other collaborating boards.
• CME for Maintenance of Certification Beginner’s Guide: This guide will walk you through the basics of integrating Maintenance of Certification/Continuous Certification into your organization’s currently existing CME program. This beginner’s guide is meant to be a primer to be used in conjunction with the CME for Maintenance of Certification Program Guide, which provides in-depth information on the specific requirements for each board.
• FAQ

Leadership Comments 

“The ABS looks forward to working with the ACCME on a seamless transfer of diplomate CME activities. The ACCME-ABS collaboration will decrease the administrative burden of CME reporting and will allow diplomates to devote their time to lifelong learning and the care of patients, instead of tracking and uploading CME credits. The PARS collaboration also provides diplomates with ready access to a trove of available CME opportunities.”—Jo Buyske, MD, President and CEO, American Board of Surgery (ABS)

“In these challenging times, it is more important than ever to support the efforts of educators and surgeons to optimize the care delivered to the patients and communities we all serve. By working together, the ACCME and the ABS empower our educators to offer ABS diplomates more flexibility in choosing high-quality, practice-relevant learning that advances their ability to deliver the highest quality care.”—Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) 

Questions?

Accredited CME providers: Please contact info@accme.org.
ABS Diplomates: Please contact the ABS communications department.