ACCME Release Executive Summary of March Board Meeting

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) recently released the executive summary of their March 2009 Board of Directors Meeting. To view the full summary click here.

Highlights include:

The ACCME will not be taking any action regarding eliminating commercial support of CME.

Although they reserved the right to reevaluate this decision in the future, the report states:

"The ACCME is committed to providing oversight of accredited continuing medical education that is developed in compliance with the ACCME® Standards for Commercial SupportSM and that includes commercial support and/or teachers and authors who have financial relationships with ACCME-defined commercial interests."

Accreditation Outcomes

Ninety-seven organizations were reviewed under the 2006 ACCME Accreditation Criteria. From those organizations:

• Five of seven initial applicants have received Provisional Accreditation
• Seven providers have been recommended for Accreditation with Commendation
• Five providers were put on Probation
• Forty-eight providers are required to submit a Progress Report because of noncompliance findings in at least one element of the ACCME® Standards for Commercial SupportSM.
  

Facilitation of a CME Funding Organization

The ACCME will begin the process of investigating the feasibility of creating an independent, single grant-making organization that would distribute unconditional grants to accredited CME providers.