Continuing Medical Education (CME) has been a major concern of the UEMS since 1993 when the Charter on Continuing Medical Education was published. Voluntary CME is enshrined in UEMS policy, but in several European countries steps are being taken at national level towards mandatory CME, coupled with legal or professional re-certification or re-licensing, financial incentives or coupled with contracts with insurances and hospitals. This would lead towards an increasing need for European exchange of CME credits, obtained by individual doctors outside their own country.
The European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) was set up by UEMS in October 1999 in Vienna and started operating in January 2000. The purpose of UEMS was to harmonise and improve the quality of specialist medical care in Europe. In the field of Continuing Medical Education and Continuing Professional Development (CPD), EACCME would pursue this objective by insuring accessibility to quality CME activities and securing European exchange of CME credits for the medical specialists in Europe.
EACCME was created as a UEMS body and is therefore regulated by UEMS Council, which is made up of representative professional specialist associations in EU Member States and EFTA countries. EACCME is managed by UEMS Executive and is based in the premises of UEMS in Brussels.
The practical instrument to improve the quality of CME in Europe is the facilitation of transfer of CME credits obtained by individual specialists in CME activities that meet common quality requirements between European countries, between different specialties and between the European credit system and comparable systems outside Europe. EACCME does not provide accreditation of CME activities directly, but it will connect the existing and emerging accreditation systems in Europe and act as a clearing-house for accreditation of CME and credits in Europe. As such it does not supersede national authorities on accreditation of CME, nor does it create another layer of bureaucracy.
The UEMS Advisory Council on CME is made up of representatives of:
- national professional CME authorities, including national CME accrediting bodies;
- UEMS, including its Sections and Boards;
- professional specialist organisations and societies.
This Advisory Council provides full exchange of expert-knowledge and collaboration between the various partners involved in accreditation at European level. UEMS convenes a meeting of this committee each year in Brussels as it is committed to the further evolvement of EACCME procedures in cooperation with the members of this advisory committee.
In November 2001, a Working Group with representation from the UEMS Advisory Council on CME was established to study different CME issues. The recommendations of the Working Group were transmitted to UEMS Council in October 2002 and related to 3 main areas:
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Accreditation of distance learning programmes.
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Accreditation of certain providers for a period of a certain number of years.
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CPD, Continuing Professional Development.
EACCME and the American Medical Association have been recognising each other`s CME credits since 2000. Negotiations to extend this arrangement were conducted by the Secretary-General in April and June 2002. An agreement to extend this arrangement till 2006 was reached and approved by AMA Council of Education in June 2002 and by UEMS Council in October 2002. Concerning the quality issue of CME, contacts with the AMA and the American Accreditation Council for CME (ACCME) were laid.
