The Office of Continuing Medical Education (CME) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.  The ACCME has established national standards for programs of this kind and those standards are called the CME Essentials.  All educational activities approved by the CME program office awarding category 1 credit must comply with the Essentials.  To be sure that the Essentials are implemented, ACCME conducts random audits of conference files, and the overall CME program is reviewed in detail for re-accreditation every four to six years.  Additional information regarding the Essentials can be found in the CME Guidelines document in the “CME Applications Materials” link to the left.

ACCME's Essentials are based on a particular point of view regarding CME programs.  This perspective suggests that CME educational activities should be done not for their own sake or as some sort of ritual, but as carefully designed interventions intended to respond to educational needs related to the practice of medicine.  ACCME's Essentials require a coherent approach to the development of CME activities to meet this challenge.  The Essentials also address important concerns about the influence of commercial funding on CME activities.

ACCME requires that we - the CME Office - as the accredited program within the University of Missouri, School of Medicine, be involved early in the development of every educational activity for which category 1 credits are provided.  If the activity is organized by an entity outside of the School of Medicine, significant faculty involvement is required.  WE ARE NOT PERMITTED TO GRANT CME CREDIT UNLESS WE ARE INVOLVED IN AN EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY BEFORE TOPICS AND SPEAKERS ARE SELECTED.