Standards for Substantive Equivalency between Continuing Professional Development/Continuing Medical Education (CPD/CME) Accreditation Systems

Kate Regnier; Craig Campbell; Reinhard Griebenow; Michel Smith; Kate Runacres; Amy Smith; Graham McMahon

doi:10.1080/21614083.2021.1874644

Standards for Substantive Equivalency between Continuing Professional Development/Continuing Medical Education (CPD/CME) Accreditation Systems

J Eur CME. 2021 Jan 29;10(1):1874644. doi: 10.1080/21614083.2021.1874644.

Authors

Kate Regnier¹, Craig Campbell², Reinhard Griebenow², Michel Smith³, Kate Runacres³, Amy Smith⁴, Graham McMahon¹

Affiliations

¹ Accreditation Council for CME (ACCME), Chicago, IL, USA.
² European Cardiology Section Foundation (ECSF), Cologne, Germany.
³ Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
⁴ American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Leawood, KS, USA.

Abstract

The International Academy for Continuing Professional Development Accreditation (IACPDA) is dedicated to advocating for and enhancing the development, implementation and evolution of continuing medical education (CME)/continuing professional development (CPD) accreditation systems throughout the world by providing an opportunity for individuals in leadership positions to (a) learn about the values, principles and metrics of varying CME/CPD accreditation systems; (b) explore the accreditation standards for CME/CPD provider organisations and activities under differing systems; and (c) foster evaluations to measure the impact of CME/CPD accreditation systems on physician learning, competence, performance, and healthcare outcomes. IACPDA has developed a shared set of international standards to guide the accreditation of CME/CPD for medical doctors and healthcare teams globally, which have been adopted in the Cologne Consensus Conference on 10 September 2020. These standards will also be used to determine substantive equivalency between accrediting bodies.

Keywords: Accreditation; Accreditation Systems; Continuing Medical Education; Continuing Professional Development; Standards; Substantive Equivalency.