The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) was founded in 1981 to oversee the accreditation of institutions that provide continuing medical education (CME). A nonprofit corporation based in Chicago, IL, we are responsible for setting standards to ensure that CME is effective, relevant, responsive to the changing healthcare environment, independent, free from commercial bias, and designed to promote healthcare improvement. Our goal is to leverage the power of education to improve clinician performance and patient care.
The ACCME Strategic Plan 2022–2026, Thriving Together: Accelerate Learning, Change, and Growth in Healthcare, addresses our interconnected opportunities and challenges and aims to promote an even more vibrant and thriving accredited continuing education enterprise
The strategic plan comprises five priority areas:
- Strategic Goal 1: Act with Integrity
- Strategic Goal 2: Advance Excellence in Accredited Continuing Education
- Strategic Goal 3: Provide Exemplary Service
- Strategic Goal 4: Promote Diversity and Inclusion
- Strategic Goal 5: Demonstrate the Power of Collaboration
The objectives of this strategic plan are ambitious, but we believe that together with our staff, leadership, colleagues in the CME community, and our stakeholders across the health system, we can realize our shared vision of leveraging the power of education to improve the quality of care for the patients and communities we serve.
We are working hard to drive transformation in the learning environment for practicing clinicians, support our CME community, and simplify and align regulatory systems. During the past few years we:
- Implemented new commendation criteria that encourage CME providers to engage in exemplary practices in pedagogy, engagement, evaluation, and change management, and to focus on generating meaningful outcomes
- Collaborated with our colleagues at the American Medical Association (AMA) to align requirements, giving CME providers the freedom and flexibility to employ blended or new educational approaches
- Collaborated with several certifying boards to reduce regulatory burdens and expand opportunities for physicians to participate in CME that counts for Maintenance of Certification and Continuing Certification requirements
- Initiated a pilot program that will enable CME providers to report physician participation in CME directly to the licensing board
- Promoted interprofessional continuing education (IPCE), by expanding Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ to include more professions and by initiating an IPCE credit mark and statement.
- Launched an annual meeting to build a community of practice for CME professionals
- Continued to collaborate with government agencies to leverage the capacity of accredited CME to address public health imperatives, such as the opioid crisis
- Increased our engagement with CME and health system leaders around the world
The ACCME’s founding organizations represent the profession of medicine. They continue to serve as our member organizations and we collaborate on leadership initiatives to address emerging issues in clinician education and the healthcare environment.
- American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)
- American Hospital Association (AHA)
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
- Association for Hospital Medical Education (AHME)
- Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS)
- Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States (FSMB)