In response to requests from physicians and accredited CME providers, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) have collaborated to simplify the integration of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) and accredited CME. The goal behind the collaboration is to expand the number and diversity of accredited CME activities that offer ABIM MOC points, and to streamline the process for registering for CME activities in ABIM’s MOC program.
Dr. Richard J. Baron, President and CEO of ABIM states, “While ABIM already offers more than 300 medical knowledge options to physicians engaged in MOC, our diplomates have asked for a more streamlined process to enable them to more seamlessly combine their ongoing educational activities with MOC requirements. By collaborating with ACCME, ABIM will open the door to even more options for physicians engaged in MOC and will allow them to get MOC credit for high-quality CME activities they are already doing.”
On Wednesday, October 14, 2015, the ACCME hosted a webinar entitled, “CME That Counts for ABIM MOC,” where they answered questions about registering CME activities for ABIM’s MOC program in PARS.
There are several changes to the CME activity registration process that are set to make the process more simple and unified. One of those changes is that CME providers are no longer required to submit applications to ABIM for activity peer review approval; instead, they are able to directly use the ACCME Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) to register activities for ABIM’s MOC program.
As with any other accredited CME activity, you must first enter all the required activity information into PARS in order to open the activity record. If your activity has already been opened in PARS and you want to register it for ABIM’s MOC program, you can locate the activity record under the Activities tab and click on the update link for that activity. You can update ABIM MOC- eligible activities back to January 2014.
After you have entered the required activity information, you will see a Maintenance of Certification section. Once stating that you would like to “register this CME activity for MOC so that physician attendees may receive MOC credit,” CME providers are required to attest to compliance with requirements for the ABIM Medical Knowledge Assessment Recognition Program, agree to collect the required individual participant completion data and submit it via PARS, agree to abide by ABIM/ACCME requirements for use of the data, agree to allow ACCME to publish data about the activity on ACCME’s website, and agree to comply with requests for information about the activity if it is selected for an MOC audit by the ACCME.
This ABIM MOC registration process is available for all CME providers in the ACCME system, including state-accredited providers, providers directly accredited by the ACCME, and providers that have received Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education.
Once a CME provider has registered their activity, physicians can go here and find a sortable list of accredited CME activities that are registered in ABIM’s MOC program.
While this program offers many additional choices, it does not have any new ACCME requirements. CME providers in the ACCME System have the option – but are not required – to offer accredited CME that meets ABIM’s MOC program requirements and to submit activity and participant completion data through PARS to ABIM.
President and CEO of ACCME, Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, is looking forward to the collaboration, “The ACCME has long supported the goals of MOC and the alignment of accredited CME and MOC. We share a common mission to facilitate the continuing professional development of physicians. We celebrate this collaboration because it will make a real and meaningful difference to physicians and educators who are working every day to improve healthcare in their communities. This collaboration will generate many more opportunities for accredited CME providers to serve as a strategic resource by delivering relevant, effective, independent, practice-based education that counts for MOC. I look forward to working together with ABIM, our community of accredited CME providers, and our community of diplomates to leverage the power of education to drive quality in our medical profession and improve care for the patients we serve.”
ABIM and ACCME expect to have the process open for accredited CME providers that meet the standards set by ABIM by the end of 2015.
For a step-by-step diagram of the new ABIM MOC PARS process, please click here. If you have any additional questions, the ACCME has created a helpful FAQ page.