Highlights

We’re excited to provide another update about the new, improved Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS), set to launch later this year. As part of the improvements, we’re enhancing CME Finder, the free search tool that helps physicians find accredited CME activities that meet their needs. 

CME Finder Enhancements 

• More activities: CME Finder will display any current or future activities that you, as the provider, choose to include. It will no longer be limited to activities that are registered for MOC, MIPS, or REMS. 

• More search filters: Physicians will be able to quickly search by activity format, date, types of credit offered, topic, location, keyword, specialty, and other details.  

• Personalized accounts: Physicians will be able to create a personalized account, enabling them to view their reported CME and MOC credits and generate transcripts for their state medical board, certifying board, employer, or other regulatory authority. 

Why Are We Enhancing PARS and CME Finder? 

We’ve heard from stakeholders that an integrated, centralized data system is essential for reducing burdens on learners; better serving our accredited provider community; meeting the needs of credentialing, certifying, and licensing authorities; and increasing the value of accredited CME. Toward that end, the new PARS will give you the option to enter, track, and manage physician-learner data for all your accredited activities, not only those activities registered for MOC. 

By entering your activities prospectively, choosing to display them in CME Finder, and entering individual learner data, you’ll have the opportunity to: 

• Increase the visibility of your CME activities; reach a wider audience of learners. 

• Reinforce the value of your activities to learners and other stakeholders.  

• Decrease physicians’ reporting burden — giving them more time to focus on their patients, not paperwork. 

• Reduce your work responding to queries and certificate requests from physicians. 

• Support regulatory authorities by providing easier access to verified CME and MOC participation data. 

We recognize that some of you have systems in place for your learners that track and report their CME participation with your organization. CME Finder is not intended to replace your systems — it is an additional option, giving physicians a centralized site where they can find and track their CME participation with all of their CME providers. 

Streamlined Data Entry 

We’re building the new version of PARS to make it easier for you to take advantage of these new options. Reflecting feedback from providers and other stakeholders, the new version of PARS will feature a modernized, user-friendly, streamlined interface for activity and learner reporting, including: 

• Reduced fields for activity entry: You’ll no longer need to enter reporting year, competencies, hours of instruction, or details of in-kind donations. If you offer multi-year enduring material activities, you’ll only need to enter them once. 

• Improved learner matching: For most learners, you’ll only need to enter their first name, last name, month and day of birth (not year), and state of licensure to make a match. Access to a learner-matching application programming interface (API) will allow you to pre-validate learner-identification data when entering information about participation in CME and/or MOC. 

• Content description: To improve the value of CME Finder, you’ll need to enter a brief description of each of your activities, such as the abstract, content outline, or learning objectives. With this information, physicians will be able to search for activities by topic. This description will be required for each activity regardless of whether you choose to display it in CME Finder. This information will increase the value of the data to stakeholders and support CME research. 

We’re Here to Help 

The success of the enhanced CME Finder in serving our stakeholder community depends on you: the more activity and learner data that you enter into the new PARS, the more useful CME Finder will be for physician-learners. We encourage you to plan ahead to make full use of these new options. We’ll provide updates and resources to support you. Visit our New PARS webpage for more information. If you have questions, please contact us at info@accme.org.