CE News – All Articles

Our annual meeting is now just a couple of weeks away, and I’m thrilled about the prospect of implementing our multi-channel approach. We have a lot of questions – can we bridge the gap between in-person and livestream channels, or synchronous and asynchronous channels? Can we successfully manage interactions between virtual and on-site attendees? Will we have enough volunteers to make it work?

We are excited to be hosting the SACME Annual Meeting soon. Whether you will be joining online or in person in Nashville, we can’t wait to all be together. We already have over 200 attendees, and it’s not too late to register. This event will be a great opportunity for us to come together, find inspiration, and recharge as we shape the future of CPD.

CME/CPD professionals continually face the challenge of effectively communicating our value within our institutions. Despite the critical role of continuing medical education/continuing professional development in improving patient care and population health, many leaders and clinicians still view it primarily as a mandatory credit requirement. Consequently, it is crucial for us to collectively explore strategies to convey our story, dispel misconceptions, advocate for our significance, and strive for representation in decision-making processes so that we are driving the mission of our respective organizations.

NEW! The aim of this column is to Identify resources available for training in QI concepts and identify strengths within the CE/CPD office for facilitating QI work. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines Quality Improvement (QI) as “…the framework used to systematically improve care. Quality Improvement seeks to standardize processes and structure to reduce variation, achieve predictable results, and improve outcomes for patients, healthcare systems, and organizations.”

SACME’s Virtual Journal Club (VJC) was founded with a goal of helping support and further our capacity for scholarship in the field of continuing professional development in the healthcare. As we considered the diversity of academic experience, variety of backgrounds and professional roles in our field that shaped the needs and interests of our community, we decided to…

Dear Colleagues, We hope that you all enjoyed the holiday break and look forward to a new year of continued challenging work in CPD.  And what better way to start the new year off is transitioning to our new and improved publication application called WordPress. The aim and intent is to provide our members with […]

The shift in interest to online learning was catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic as educational and professional development programs were forced to explore online learning strategies and creatively…

I love telling stories. One story I’d like to share with you is about my evolution as an education scientist who is committed to coproducing research through equitable partnerships with patients, health professionals and researchers. My hope is that it will help you partner with people outside of your discipline, content area and even philosophical orientation. Perhaps the lessons I have learned along the way will inspire you to work toward equitable relationships within the physician-patient dyad and ultimately improve patient care.

In this interesting session, the speakers outlined how CPD is the cornerstone for value creation in the healthcare system. However, admittedly, showing the value of CPD is not without its challenges. A case must be made for why we should invest in CME/CPD. Thus the question becomes, can the value of CPD be measured and quantified in a way that makes a convincing case for investing in CPD?

Become a member in a society of distinguished CME-CPD leaders working in  medical schools and other academic institutions, nationally and internationally…. The Society of Academic CME (SACME) is committed to promoting the highest value in patient care and health of the public through the scholarship of continuing medical and interprofessional education. Join us to connect with a passionate network of professional members. We are delighted to broaden our membership categories, and welcome passionate students and ‘early career’ professionals into the SACME community for mentorship and training.

Column Editors: Craig Campbell, MD and Joseph Szot, MD

Truth and Reconciliation in Medical Schools: Forging a Critical Reflective Framework to Advance Indigenous Health Equity.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada outlined 94 Calls to Action, which formalized a responsibility for all people and institutions in Canada to confront and craft paths to remedy the legacy of the country’s colonial past. This article outlines efforts by stakeholders at one medical school to mobilize their institution to address the TRC’s Calls to Action via the Indigenous Health

We are delighted to present our interviews with the CME/CPD leadership from The Johns Hopkins University, (Baltimore, MD) Todd Dorman, MD. Our host and interviewer for this column is Mila Kostic.

The grant application process is now open for continuing education (CE) activities that are compliant with the Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (OA REMS). The 2023 CE Request for Application (RFA) is available here. Submissions are due by March 9, 2023 (11:59 pm ET).  The goal of the grants is to support high-quality REMS-compliant accredited continuing education for prescribers and other healthcare professionals on the […]

Welcome to a new column in CE News, called the CE News Institutional Spotlight, where we focus on CPD Leadership at various leading CPD institutions. On November 17, 2022, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Lori Deitte and Dr. Monique Drago from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  

Meharry Medical College (MMC) is located in Nashville, Tennessee and was founded in 1876 for the purpose of training physicians to provide healthcare for the freed slaves who received little or no medical attention.

Dear Readers,
As you may have noticed, you didn’t receive a CE News Spring issue. Instead, you received our 2023 Annual Proceedings Report, filled with plenary session summaries, oral abstracts and poster presentations. If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend the 2023 meeting in Nashville either virtually or live, than we hope you will take a moment to review this report. Presently, the report is available to members and the public to download. In other news, I am delighted to announce two additions to our editorial team. Ginny Jacobs, PhD, a past SACME president and well-known in the CME/CPD community, has agreed to serve as Co-Chief Editor. We are so fortunate to have Ginny join the team and we look forward to her contributions both…

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in medical education refer to the breaking down of systemic barriers that prevent the full participation of educators and learners from underrepresented groups. During the pandemic, we have seen increasing calls to address disparities due to racism, colonialism, gender bias, heteronormativity, and other forms of oppression.  Educators have a range of experience in this area. In this piece, we would like to give you some tips as to how you might be able to incorporate equity into your work as a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) provider.

In Australia, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) regulates registered health practitioners, and it works in collaboration with 15 National Boards to set the standards that all health practitioners must meet to register and maintain their registration to practice medicine. In particular, the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) sets professional regulation and registration standards for medical practitioners in Australia, in accordance with the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

This column aims to provide a list of insightful publications on topics of interest to teaching faculty and professionals in CME/CPD. A prospective randomized study to compare standard versus intensive training strategies on long-term improvement in critical care ultrasonography proficiency. This article studied the impact of two approaches to the acquisition of critical care ultrasound skills by Critical Care Fellows. The lack of any impact of 8 additional hours of training raises important questions regarding which skills require more longitudinal training to reach acceptable levels of competence.

Join us for SACME’s 2023 Annual Meeting where educators, administrators and other professionals in academic continuing medical education (CME) will explore Inspiring and Igniting the CPD Imagination. SACME members receive an additional $100 discount. All rates listed are for In-Person and Virtual. Please sign in to your SACME account to receive member pricing. For more […]

The AFMC CPD Research Committee invites abstracts for presentations at the 2023 AFMC CPD Virtual Research Symposium scheduled for Thursday and Friday, May 11-12th from 12-4PM EST. We encourage abstract submissions across the following domains: Health Professions Education Research; Implementation Science; Quality Improvement; Patient Safety; Program Development and Evaluation; Faculty Development. We welcome abstracts related to the theme of ICAM 2023. Deadline for abstract submissions: February 20th, 2023. Online abstract submission at: https://tinyurl.com/CPDresearch2023.

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Morag Paton, one of my colleagues in continuing professional development (CPD). We are on a research project together and Morag had offered to draft a positionality statement, a practice that is becoming more common in academia. Positionality refers to where each one of us is located in relation to our various social identities, which include lived and learned experience, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, socio-economic status, geographic location and socio-political history.

Welcome back from the long, hot summer. We apologize for the delay in publishing this Fall issue and will be back to our normal, quarterly schedule this Winter. Here are some highlights from this issue. We begin the issue with our International CME/CPD Update with a summary report of a unique workshop presented by Helena Filipe and Mila Kostic during the annual AMEE international conference this past September in Lyon. The workshop focused on the value of weaving professional networking, potentially enhanced by technology, and creating structured conversations at the workplace as pathways to develop professional development opportunities and creating value to the organization.

Health professionals in rural settings treat a wide variety of medical conditions requiring a large breadth of knowledge to manage this clinical practice. This manuscript uses mixed methods (interviews, focus groups, observation and questionnaires) to identify barriers and challenges to CPD in rural settings.

SACME Phil R. Manning Research Award: The Society for Continuing Medical Education (SACME) is announcing the call for proposals for the Phil R. Manning Research Award in Continuing Professional Development. Funding up to $50,000 (USD) is available over two years for projects that support scientific research for the advancement of any of the following fields

On August 23, the Department of Veterans Affairs published a proposed rule entitled Health Care Professionals Practicing via Telehealth to update VA regulations regarding, among other items, practice standards for VA professionals. The proposed rule also clarifies licensure requirements for the practice of telehealth by trainees and postgraduate employees. As noted in the proposed rule, the FSMB and several state medical boards have stated the importance of requiring trainees to have a full and unrestricted license to practice without supervision

Technology helps us improve our lives. It allows us to do things we have already been doing – but better, faster, and differently. The number of tools we can use to enhance CME/CPD activities is growing. They come in various shapes and formats. They are usually grouped in packages that allow comprehensive learning delivery.

In this first column, I wish to challenge CPD educators and innovators to think about creating new roles. What will medicine and health professions education look like in the next 15 years? What skills will we need to keep on top of ever-evolving technology and engage our students? Given the massive shift toward fields of virtual/augmented reality, data analytics and artificial intelligence, the roles of clinician-educators are changing.

In CPD, learning objectives are provided to participants so that they know what they will learn in an educational activity. While it is tempting to list a series of topics that a speaker should cover, worthy learning objectives must be learner-focused, and not speaker-focused. With this focus in mind, learning objectives also need several elements to make a strong and worthy learning objective

Meaningful learning fits around work. Beyond considering corporate learning as a destination, professional development should incorporate opportunities that naturally and contextually meet the workforce learning needs within a practice setting. Bersin acknowledges the need to shift from “instructional design” to “experience design”

Dear Readers, All of us have been affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent attenuation measures. It has affected the health of many, and certainly how we work, learn, and teach.   As mentioned by Albert Einstein “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”. In his article “Technology-Enhanced CPD After 1.5 […]

The Scholarship Committee of the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education (SACME) is pleased to announce a new grant opportunity in memory of Paul Mazmanian. The SACME Board of Directors is finalizing the criteria for the grant but expects to make the announcement in 2022.

In the article, I described my own journey in trying to keep my knowledge and skills current having realized that many of my patients knew a whole lot more about their conditions than I, a fresh graduate from residency thought they did.

In needs assessments, who you ask very much determines what you will find. Out of respect for the time of readers, we’ll put this question frankly: if the goal of healthcare is better community health, shouldn’t the most …

As the editors of this column, we feel compelled to discuss an issue important to us: the wellbeing of the professionals who make CPD happen. Our desks…

This column aims to provide a list of insightful publications on topics of interest to teaching faculty and professionals in CME/CPD.
Introduction: Among the many skills required for leading interprofessional health care teams, emotional intelligence and communication skills are critical to building professionalism, establishing patient trust, and providing optimal patient care…

The Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC) hosted a seven week longitudinal and virtual curriculum to train clinical faculty and other medical educators on the QIPS competencies so that they may teach quality improvement and patient safety skills to their learners (ie other faculty, residents and students). The curriculum for this program was designed by a national panel of expert medical educators convened by the AAMC over a two year period. Entitled Teaching Education for Quality (Te4Q)

This article discusses an academic experience, tips and tricks for expanding or getting started with MOC/CC Part 2 credits especially into RSS. Lessons for CPD Practice: 1) Communication. Help providers understand MOC/CC, and that it is required of board-certified providers without lifetime certification. They are already doing most of the work for CME, so why not get those cookies? 2)Ease of use. Use clear templates to,,,