Here are links to some of the top stories in the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s December report:

ACCME Releases November Board Of Directors Meeting Executive Summary. Among the happenings:

-The Board named Richard Reiling, MD, and Sandra Norris, MBA, as 2011 Chair and Vice-Chair of the ACCME.

-The ACCME recognized its exemplary volunteers with Service Awards.

-It issued an accreditation update:

ACCME Includes Providers’ Responsibilities to Learners in Complaints Process

.This revision requires CME providers to “offer corrective information to learners, planners and faculty if an activity is found to be Noncompliant with Standard for Commercial Support 1 (independence), Standard for Commercial Support 5 (freedom from commercial bias), or the ACCME’s content validation policies. Providers will determine how to communicate the corrective information and are under no obligation to communicate that the activity was found Noncompliant.” An earlier revision made in July was made to balance transparency with providers’ confidentiality, following a model similar to the ACCME’s accreditation review procedures.

ACCME Announces Rutledge W Howard, MD Award Recipients

-The Rutledge W. Howard, MD Award for Individual Service to the Intrastate Accreditation System was awarded to James Liljestrand, MD, MPH, Massachusetts Medical Society.

-The Rutledge W. Howard, MD Award for Outstanding Collaboration between Accreditors and Providers was awarded to the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

New Interview on Integrating CME with Quality Improvement and Promoting Physician Leadership: Mike Horst, PhD, Director of Research and CME for Lancaster General Hospital in Lancaster, PA, talks about the successes and challenges of integrating education with quality improvement and medical staff services at a state-accredited community hospital. As part of the discussion, Horst explores a physician leadership development course developed by his CME department.

Murray Kopelow, MD, ACCME Chief Executive, gave two presentations at the First China International Continuing Medical Education Conference, held November 12 –14, 2010, in Beijing.

The ACCME held a meeting with accredited providers to discuss how to develop CME about procedures using medical devices that is compliant with the Standards for Commercial Support. The ACCME has posted FAQs related to this issue on the Ask ACCME section of its Web site; see question 12 under Standards for Commercial Support 1: Independence, and this video interview with Damon Marquis, Director of Education and Member Services, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, who describes how his organization plans and conducts education on procedures using surgical devices while maintaining independence from commercial influence and bias.

Reminder for Accredited Providers: 2010 Annual Report Data Deadline is March 31, 2011