News
ACCME WELCOMES BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS FOR 2025

ACCME welcomes our newly elected 2025 officers to the Board of Directors: Jon Thomas, MD, MBA, Chair; Annette Donawa, PhD, MSEd, Vice Chair; and Tammy L.H. McGee, MBA, Treasurer. Congratulations to the new officers! View the full list of 2025 Board of Directors here

       

               Dr. Thomas                                         Dr. Donawa                                     Ms. McGee

DAVID BALDWIN, MPA, RETIRES FROM ACCME AFTER 20 YEARS OF SERVICE

With mixed emotions, we announce the retirement of David Baldwin, MPA, after 20 years of service on ACCME’s Accreditation & Recognition team. David’s experience in continuing medical education (CME) stretches to his time at the University of Kansas Medical Center’s Office of Continuing Medical Education in 1978. In time, his success connected him with the senior leadership of ACCME who tapped him to become ACCME’s Manager of CME Accreditation Services in 2004. He has served as the Director of Accreditation Services since 2016. He has steadfastly advocated for our volunteers, ensured the clarity of the accreditation language, and inspired those around him to become more involved in accreditation standards.

Reflecting on his career at ACCME, David said: “Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is support healthcare professionals to deliver healthcare. So, the ultimate users are you and me, the patients. One of the most important areas we can support is healthcare provider-patient communication. Accredited CME provides healthcare professionals with the tools and information they need to be helpful to their patients. Accreditation is important because it establishes certain standards for content, keeps education independent, and removes barriers from delivering the information and tools needed to educate learners.”

He also spoke about the importance of ACCME as a champion of evidence-based science and medicine. “We set up a framework with rules and regulations that I see as guidance for doing things in a safe space. We’re a bit of coach and cop, applying the rules and regulations and trying to be fair about that, but also coaching to support providers as best we can. Even when communicating accreditation decisions, we try to help providers understand what noncompliance means and why it’s important to comply with our standards.”

David looks forward to reinvesting in dinners with friends, reconnecting with fitness, and learning what it means to center rest and relaxation.

David’s colleagues shared the following sentiments:

“David’s passion and infectious joy made working with him both a partnership and a mentorship, creating a truly rewarding experience. His wealth of knowledge, attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to the integrity of the accreditation system not only guided us with consistency and fairness but also laid a strong foundation for future growth. His smiles, hugs, and dedication will be deeply missed.” – Anne D. Grupe, MSEd, Senior Director, American Society of Clinical Oncology

“David’s unwavering dedication, expertise, and welcoming nature have profoundly shaped ACCME and everyone fortunate enough to work with him. His ability to simplify complex challenges, foster trust, and guide the CME community fairly and clearly has left an enduring legacy. He strengthened our standards and processes and showed us the power of adaptability, resilience, and compassion. His kindness, sense of humor, and steadfast presence will be deeply missed, but his influence will continue to guide us for years to come.” – Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, ACCME President and Chief Executive Officer

ACCREDITATION DECISIONS

The ACCME Board of Directors’ Decision Committee made the following decisions at its December meeting:

56 ACCME accreditation decisions

• 5 Non-accreditation from Initial Application
• 4 Probation with a progress report required
• 14 Accreditation with a progress report required
• 5 Provisional Accreditation from Initial Application
• 23 Accreditation
• 5 Accreditation with Commendation

The ACCME has a rigorous, multilevel process for making accreditation and reaccreditation decisions, which are made three times a year. For more information about the decision-making process, see https://accme.org/accreditation-process/decisions/.

Education and Resources

LEARN TO THRIVE 2025 REGISTRATION OPEN

Registration is now open for ACCME’s Learn to Thrive 2025. The annual conference is an essential professional development opportunity to help you discover actionable strategies that will optimize your role in helping clinicians deliver quality patient care. Join stakeholders from across the healthcare education continuum to learn from the rich diversity of educational and collaborative approaches that are improving healthcare each day.

Learn to Thrive 2025 will feature opportunities to learn from:

• Leaders in healthcare improvement and team-based care.
• ACCME staff about the connection between accreditation standards and best practices for CE planning.
• Your peers about strategies to streamline planning processes and make your CE program more efficient.
• Mostly importantly, you’ll learn to thrive as a CE professional!
  

Learn to Thrive 2025 will take place as an in-person meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on April 23-25, 2025. For more information and to register, visit www.accmemeeting.org.

SACME 2025 ANNUAL MEETING MARCH 16-19, WASHINGTON, DC

The Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education (SACME) invites you to their 2025 Annual Meeting, March 16-19 in Washington, DC. This year’s annual meeting’s theme is Advocacy in Action: Empowering CPD/CE Professionals to Lead Change. The program offers hands-on workshops, plenaries, and poster sessions. Through research and best practices sessions, learn from CPD/CE colleagues who’ve developed innovative strategies, including interprofessional and team-based education, working in the evolving CPD/CE environment using data driven CPD, and incorporating quality improvement and patient safety.

Reminders for Accredited Providers

MOC LEARNER-COMPLETION DEADLINES

You can report CME and Maintenance of Certification/Continuous Certification (MOC/CC) data for your physician learners in PARS. That information will be made available to all of the U.S. licensing boards and certifying boards with which ACCME collaborates (full list below).

As we near the end of 2024, please note that all certifying boards have year-end reporting requirements for their physicians. To best support your physician learners, please enter their CME for MOC completion data for 2024 in PARS by the deadlines listed below, and remember, PARS is always open!  We encourage you to report learner data into PARS on an ongoing basis as physicians complete activities, preferably within 30 days of the learner completing the activity and evaluation.

Learner completion data should be submitted to PARS by December 31, 2024, for the following certifying boards:

• American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA)
• American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)
• American Board of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (ABOHNS) 
• American Board of Pathology (ABPath)
• American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS)
• American Board of Surgery (ABS)
• American Board of Thoracic Surgery (ABTS)
  

For questions about submitting learner data in PARS, check out this tutorial. Explore additional technical details on submitting learner data in PARS using batch upload processes or web services here.

Questions? Email us at info@accme.org. We are happy to help!

2025 ANNUAL ACCREDITATION FEES

The week of October 21, we sent invoices for annual accreditation fees to ACCME-accredited providers as well as those accredited by the California Medical Association and Massachusetts Medical Society (at the request of those state medical societies). Payment is due January 31, 2025. The fee schedule is posted here.

If your organization is accredited by ACCME, or one of the state medical societies listed above and you did not receive an invoice, please contact info@accme.org. Please contact your accreditor if your organization is accredited by a state medical society not listed above. If you have already paid your invoice, thank you!

 

MAKE PLANS NOW FOR HEALTHCARE CONTINUING EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS DAY JAN. 24

Mark your calendar and join us for the first annual Healthcare Continuing Education Professionals Day beginning Friday, January 24, 2025.

To celebrate our community of CE planners, speakers, reviewers, faculty, and facilitators, we encourage you to participate with ACCME on social media. Participants will be entered into a drawing to receive a $100 gift card as a token of our appreciation.

How to Participate with ACCME

• Follow ACCME on the social media platform of your choice: LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.
• Share or post a message celebrating healthcare continuing education professionals on or before Jan. 24. Use social graphics from the toolkit on accme.org/value or a graphic of your choice.
• Include hashtags #AccreditedCMEDelivers and #CEProfessionalsDay and link to www.accme.org/value.

Additional suggestions:

• Tag a CE professional(s) to celebrate their contributions.
• Take a selfie at the ACCME booth at the Alliance 2025 Annual Conference and post using the hashtags and links above.
• Share the #AccreditedCMEDelivers one-pager with your CEO and ask them to thank your CME team for their contributions. 

Watch the home page of Healthcare Continuing Education Professionals Day for more ideas coming soon!

Certifying Board News

ABIM UPDATES MOC POINT REQUIREMENT

We received an update from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) that simplifies the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) point requirement for diplomates. This change does not impact accredited providers offering ABIM MOC points, and your accredited education continues to be an invaluable resource supporting ABIM diplomates. We are sharing this information in case you get questions from ABIM diplomates who are your learners:

The ABIM is eliminating the requirement to earn points every two years (2-year point requirement) to be listed as participating in MOC. The decision to retire the requirement was based on feedback from physicians, who said it was confusing and did not provide added value. Please note: There is no change or implication for accredited providers. This is simply an update and simplification for ABIM diplomates. The requirement to earn 100 MOC points every five years to be reported as “Certified, Participating in MOC” remains in effect.

This programmatic change is effective immediately, meaning that diplomates who were expected to meet the two-year point requirement by the end of 2024 are no longer required to do so. Additionally, diplomates currently reported as “Certified, Not Participating in MOC” due to missing the two-year point requirement will have their status updated to “Certified, Participating in MOC” as long as all other MOC requirements are met.

Read the full announcement from ABIM.

Careers

The ACCME has an open position for a Technical Support Engineer.