Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
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| Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education | |
|---|---|
| Name | Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education |
| Abbreviation | ACCME |
| Formation | 1981 |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
| Region served | United States |
| Leader title | CEO |
Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education is a nonprofit organization that accredits continuing medical education activities for physicians and healthcare teams in the United States. The council establishes standards and policies for accredited providers, interacts with professional associations, specialty boards, regulatory bodies, philanthropic foundations, and medical schools, and participates in national discussions on professional development, patient safety, and interprofessional education. It operates alongside organizations concerned with credentialing, licensure, and quality measurement.
History
The council was founded amid debates in the 1970s and 1980s involving stakeholders such as the American Medical Association, American Board of Medical Specialties, Association of American Medical Colleges, Joint Commission, and state medical boards. Early milestones included alignment efforts with the Institute of Medicine recommendations and collaboration with the National Academy of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to respond to concerns raised by reports like To Err Is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the council engaged with entities such as the Fellowship in the American College of Physicians, American Board of Surgery, American College of Cardiology, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance to refine continuing education models. In the 2010s the council revised standards in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and the Federation of State Medical Boards to address conflicts of interest, clinician performance improvement, and interprofessional team learning. Recent initiatives reference collaborations with the World Health Organization, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Mayo Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Hospital to incorporate patient safety science and systems-based practice.
Organization and Governance
Governance structures mirror nonprofit frameworks found in groups like the American Medical Association House of Delegates and the American Board of Internal Medicine. The council's board comprises representatives from professional societies such as the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and lay or public members similar to those on boards like the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Commonwealth Fund. Executive leadership works with advisory committees resembling committees in the National Quality Forum and consults with legal counsel and auditors like those retained by entities such as Kaiser Permanente and academic centers including Harvard Medical School and Stanford Medicine. Policy decisions are influenced by commissions and task forces that parallel work done by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education and the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Faculty Affairs.
Accreditation Standards and Criteria
Standards address content design, independence, disclosure, and improvement activities, reflecting principles advocated by the Institute of Medicine Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, World Health Organization Patient Safety, and specialty organizations such as the American Board of Neurological Surgery and American College of Rheumatology. Criteria require mechanisms to manage relationships with commercial supporters and are informed by guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. Standards emphasize measurable clinician performance change similar to quality improvement expectations set by the National Quality Forum and reporting frameworks used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Merit-based Incentive Payment System and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators.
Certification and Accreditation Process
The council employs application, self-study, site visit, and monitoring processes similar to accreditation processes used by the Joint Commission, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and regional accreditors like the Higher Learning Commission. Providers such as academic medical centers, hospital systems like Massachusetts General Hospital and Cleveland Clinic, specialty societies like the American College of Surgeons, and commercial education companies submit documentation demonstrating compliance with requirements modeled after practices in American Board of Medical Specialties Maintenance of Certification programs. Review panels include peer reviewers from institutions including Yale School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and University of Pennsylvania Health System and rely on data collection approaches used by the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Relationships with Other Organizations
The council maintains formal and informal relationships with professional organizations such as the American Medical Association, American Board of Medical Specialties, and the Association of American Medical Colleges as well as with regulatory bodies including the Federation of State Medical Boards and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It collaborates with patient advocacy groups like American Heart Association, quality organizations like the National Quality Forum, philanthropic organizations such as the Gates Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and international bodies including the World Health Organization and European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. These partnerships influence continuing education content and integration with performance measurement programs run by entities like the National Committee for Quality Assurance and specialty boards including the American Board of Pediatrics.
Impact and Criticism
Supporters cite improvements in clinician competence and alignment with quality initiatives championed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and point to collaborations with academic centers such as Johns Hopkins Medicine and Mayo Clinic as evidence of positive impact. Criticism has focused on perceived ties to industry similar to controversies involving the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, calls for stronger transparency echoing debates around the Open Payments program, and questions about the effectiveness of continuing education raised in analyses by the National Academies and policy reviews in publications like The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. Ongoing debates involve alignment with maintenance of certification systems run by the American Board of Medical Specialties and the role of continuing education in workforce regulation overseen by the Federation of State Medical Boards.