Elements of the CME application

The Purpose of the Application / Activity Record

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) is the organization charged with ensuring that standards for quality continuing medical education (CME) are adhered to by any organization providing CME opportunities to physicians - and that's us here at UAB CME.

It serves as the accrediting body for for organizations such as the UAB Division of CME and establishes criteria that must be met by all member organizations (again, us here at UAB CME) who certify activities for CME.

We, as an accredited CME provider, must ensure that all education we certify meet these criteria. Key requirements include:

  • Document that activities enhance physician knowledge, competence, or performance, and ultimately improve patient outcomes
  • Engage in the planning process of activities to ensure activities address an identified practice gap or educational need
  • Ensure that the structure, design, and format of activities help learners achieve activity learning objectives
  • Ensure that those learning objectives are appropriate for the intended audience
  • Evaluate the outcomes of activities to assess how effective they are in closing the identified educational gap
  • Ensure that the planning, design, and delivery of all activities are independent of commercial influence

To do this, we work with you to initiate, develop, and implement procedures that document each of these criteria are met. So the application process is more than just providing information leading up to an event, it also includes:

  • ensuring that we know who attended any event (attendance tracking)
  • evaluating how effective the event was (the evaluation process), and
  • closing the loop by providing evaluation data that can inform the planning process for future activities. The application, once submitted, becomes the record for the entire activity.

To ensure that we get this right, we require that all applications be initiated at least 90 days, and completed 30 days, prior to the event or the initiation of a series.