>>McMAHON: Medical school and residency programs are the foundation of physician education. For the rest of their careers, physicians rely on accredited continuing medical education to help them provide high-quality, safe, compassionate, and effective care to the patients they serve. And those activities have to help clinicians absorb and process rapidly changing medical information and practice an ever-diversifying set of complex skills.

The ACCME 2017 data report shows that clinicians and teams have more opportunities to engage in CME than ever before. These activities span an enormous diversity in range and depth: from bedside learning to simulation to digital courses, available in every region of the country to clinicians where they live, work, and practice.

Our community of 1800 accredited CME organizations delivered: More than 1 million hours of instruction, more than 28 million interactions with clinicians and teams, and more than 162,000 educational activities. These are the highest numbers accredited CME providers have ever reported to us.

During the past 10 years, we’ve seen tremendous growth in the numbers of activities, clinician interactions and the diversity of our learner community. Over these last 10 years physician interactions grew 37% and interactions with learners other than physicians, like nurses and pharmacists, grew nearly 90%

As the CEO of ACCME — and a physician — I’m excited about the growing engagement of clinicians in accredited CME. I value the work our educators do every day to deliver high–quality CME that provides immediate and long-term benefits to patients, families, caregivers, and all of our communities.

Please visit our website to read the data report in full, and while you’re there see real-world examples of how CME providers are making a difference, and take a moment to follow us on our social media channels.

Thank you.