The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) recently released the ACCME Data Report: Growth and Evolution in Continuing Medical Education — 2016. The 2016 report includes data from a community of over 1,800 accredited continuing medical education (CME) providers that offer physicians and healthcare teams an array of resources to promote quality, safety, and the evolution of healthcare.
Key Report Takeaways
The report highlights the fact that CME is a vibrant – and growing – community. Last year, ACCME along with more than 1,800 accredited CME providers offered close to 159,000 educational activities, comprising more than one million hours of instruction and interactions with 27 million health care professionals.
Since 2015, the number of educational events has increased 7% while hours of instruction increased by 9% and interactions with clinicians increased by 5%. Even more impressive, the number of activities and interactions have increased each year since 2010, despite some consolidation among CME providers.
The numbers of physician interactions have either increased over the years, or remained stable. The number of interactions with non-physician health care professionals such as nurses, physician assistants, and pharmacists shows steady growth.
Accredited CME providers represent a range of organizations from national physician membership organizations to rural hospitals. Some specialize in local, community-based health issues, others focus on national and international health priorities, and others advance interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) and team-based care. The ACCME recently began accrediting organizations outside the US, and this report includes their data as well.
The geographic distribution and diversity of CME providers means that clinicians and teams have access to education where they live and work that addresses local, national, and international healthcare priorities.
“Every day, across the country, clinicians can choose from more than 3,000 hours of accredited CME. Accredited CME is a tremendous resource — offering clinicians, educators, and health leaders the power and capacity to address many of the challenges we face in our changing healthcare environment,” said Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, ACCME.
In his introduction to the report, Dr. McMahon also noted,
I’m delighted about the growth because it means that clinicians are increasingly engaged in education that promotes quality, safety, and the evolution of healthcare. Behind the numbers in the ACCME Data Report are educators who work every day to engage clinicians where they live, work, and learn. CME providers are creating “educational homes” that tackle health challenges while nurturing the professional development — and passion — of clinicians and teams.
He continues,
As this report demonstrates, accredited CME aims at changing more than knowledge—CME providers design and evaluate activities for meaningful change in skills, performance, and patient health outcomes. Organizations ranging from small, rural hospitals to national institutions such as the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have recognized the value of accredited CME in advancing public health imperatives.
Dr. McMahon created a video introduction to the data, which can be found here.
Excel tables with data used to create reports can be found here.
ACCME Data Report Addendum can be found here.
ACCME Data Report Addendum Excel tables can be found here.