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Accredited Continuing Medical Education Delivers
Accredited continuing medical education (CME) plays an invaluable role helping physicians and healthcare professionals improve patient care.
For physicians, it can improve performance by focusing on the unique needs of individual learners.
For organizations, accredited CME can be a catalyst for change, providing practical solutions to many of their most pressing problems.
The evidence is in. Accredited CME:
- Improves patient safety. CME has been shown to be one of the most effective methods for improving physician performance (1).
- Controls spending. Unnecessary medical procedures, prescriptions, and hospital readmissions are averted (2, 3).
- Increases physician recruitment and retention. CME has been linked to a decrease in physician burnout and turnover (4, 5, 6). Physicians thrive through meaningful work and feedback tied to their own practice.
- Protects physician learners. Commercial influence in medical education puts learners at increased risk (7). Accreditation protects the integrity and independence of medical education, ensuring it is accurate and based on best practices (8, 9).
- Uses teams to improve care. Interprofessional teams are empowered to work more effectively together to achieve their organization’s quality improvement and strategic goals (10).
- Expands preventative care. Accredited CME has a proven track record of life-saving interventions. It has been linked to increases in stroke identification, timeliness of care, cancer screenings, pediatric immunizations, and more (11, 12).
For organizations looking to innovate, investing in accredited CME can provide a remarkably cost-effective solution. CME professionals know how to improve performance, eliminate waste, and inspire and reward valued employees. CME is designed to plan, assess, and create change (13).
Engagement and participation in CME is at record levels, with roughly 230,000 accredited educational activities and over 21 million physician interactions reported in 2022 (14).
Organizations that invest in accredited CME can expect a meaningful return on their investment—it makes change possible for physicians, teams, and our larger healthcare system.
References
(1) Cervero, Ronald, and Julie Gaines. “The Impact of CME on Physician Performance and Patient Outcomes: An Updated Synthesis of Systematic Reviews.” Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions 35, no. 2 (2015): 131-138.
(2) Cook, David A., Chistopher R. Stephenson, John M. Wilkinson, Stephen Maloney, and Jonathan Foo. “Cost-effectiveness and Economic Benefit of Continuous Professional Development for Drug Prescribing: A Systematic Review.” JAMA Network Open (2022).
(3) Decreases in patient readmissions were reported by ACCME-accredited providers who achieved Accreditation with Commendation in July 2021-March 2022.
(4) Griebenow, Reinhard, Henrik Hermann, Michael Smith, Mohamed Bassiony, Arcadi Gual, Philip K. Li, Essam Elsayed, Robert D. Schaefer, Siham A. Sinani, and Graham T. McMahon. “Continuing Education As a Contributor to Mitigating Physician Burnout.” Journal of CME 12, no. 1 (2023).
(5) McMahon, Graham T. “The Leadership Case for Investing in Continuing Professional Development.” Academic Medicine 92, no. 8 (2017): 1075-1077.
(6) National Academy of Medicine. “National Plan for Health Workforce Well-Being.” The National Academies Press (2022): 64.
(7) Marks, Jonathan H. “Lessons from Corporate Influence in the Opioid Epidemic: Toward a Norm of Separation.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 17, (2019): 173–189.
(8) Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. “Standard 2: Prevent Commercial Bias and Marketing in Accredited Continuing Education.” Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education.
(9) Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. “Standard 1: Ensure Content is Valid.” Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education.
(10) Reeves, Scott, Simon Fletcher, Hugh Barr, Ivan Birch, Sylvian Boet, Nigel Davies, Angus McFadyen, Josetta Rivera, and Simon Kitto. “A BEME Systematic Review of the Effects of Interprofessional Education: BEM Guide No. 39.” Medical Teacher 38, no. 7 (2016): 656-668.
(11) ACCME-accredited providers who achieved Accreditation with Commendation in July 2021-March 2022 reported success in increasing cancer screenings, pediatric immunizations, vaccinations, stroke identification and more. They also reported decreased mortality rates through smoking interventions and alternatives to opioid prescriptions.
(12) The Texas Medical Association accredited provider Gulf Coast AHEC reported using targeted accredited CME to reduce the occurrence of patient sepsis cases in their state.
(13) Moore, Donald E. Jr, Kathy Chappell, Lawrence Sherman, and Mathena Vinayaga-Pavan. “A Conceptual Framework for Planning and Assessing Learning in Continuing Education Activities Designed for Clinicians in One Profession and/or Clinical Teams.” Medical Teacher (2018).
(14) Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. ACCME Data Report: Renewal and Growth in Accredited Continuing Education – 2022.
