ABIM-ACCME Collaboration Helps Hospitalists Earn Credit for Continuing Medical Education
Earning credit for continuing medical education (CME) is a little easier for hospitalists and other physicians.
A collaboration between the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) will enable physicians who are engaged in lifelong learning to use those activities toward completion of requirements for ABIM’s Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program.
The collaboration expands physicians’ options to receive MOC credit and helps CME providers to “offer more lifelong learning options with MOC credit to internists and subspecialties,” according to an ABIM announcement.
The ABIM-ACCME collaboration exempts CME providers from applying for ABIM approval for each MOC activity. Instead, CME providers can use a shared system to record information about CME and ABIM MOC activities.
“I think the ABIM wanted to recognize this CME as fulfilling the spirit of MOC, but up until now, it was really hard to ensure that the ‘CME’ was meaningful and not tainted by third-party sponsorship,” writes ABIM Council member and former SHM President Jeffrey Wiese, MD, MHM, in an email to The Hospitalist. “This collaboration enables physicians to get MOC credit for the CME that they are acquiring and, importantly, ensures that the CME that counts toward MOC meets the standards of the ABIM without having to go through an extensive approval process.”
Hospitalists also have the option to use the Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine exam, but not all do. Therefore, the streamlined network for reporting activity means that hospitalists will see a real benefit.
“There haven’t been a lot of modules built for hospital medicine like there have been for ambulatory medicine or the subspecialties,” Dr. Wiese adds. “Hospitalists have struggled to find medical knowledge modules that gave MOC credit and [that] fit with what they were doing in their practice. This collaboration solves that, as it opens a door for many CME activities that will satisfy both MOC credit and speak to the practice of hospital medicine.”