Full Accreditation is for organizations that provide multiple CME activities during the year, and wish to apply for their CME activities.
Organizations are therefore encouraged to become providers and start enjoying the benefits of becoming members of the Association’s accredited providers.
APPLYING FOR FULL ACCREDITATION
To be considered for the “Full Accreditation”, you must first apply for American Association of Continuing Medical Education® accreditation.
The American Association of Continuing Medical Education® accreditation process is thorough. It goes through 5 differentcommittees and subcommittees that examine the applying organization’s qualifications based on questionnaire answered in our “Application for Accreditation” package, as well as other vital elements that serve as background information on the organization applying for accreditation.
Once an organization submits their initial request, they will be assigned a team of 2 faculty staff from the Monitoring Committee who will assist the applying organization throughout the preparation of the application package, by collecting all necessary data.
However, the process is rigorous and lengthy. The initial step is to apply for the “Application for Consideration”. This process starts with the Monitoring Committee who evaluates the application, assigns a number for the applicant organization, and then evaluates the application on a preliminary base to find out whether the applicant organization qualifies to be further examined by the preceding committees and subcommittees.
This process takes up to 6 months from the time the organization applying for accreditation submits their application package, but could take as short as 6 weeks, depending on the past CME experience of the applying organization.
If the organization applying for accreditation has extensive background planning educational activities, the process can be fast-tracked, and can take as short as 3 weeks from the time we receive your completed package.
Once an organization is granted accreditation, all provider’s CME programs will be accredited.
This also means that attendees at CME activities organized by the provider will be able to meet the annual licensure requirements for the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) and the renewal of their board certificates in many countries where our credit currency is recognized.
Once granted accreditation, the organization may joint-sponsor CME activities with other non-accredited organizations, which will add to the benefits of the provider’s academic planning and program rigor.
Many accredited providers charge fees for joint-sponsorship which also compensates for staff time and the use of resources and compliance.
The accreditation process is a beneficial educational step. An organization applying for accreditation goes through a detailed learning process through the 5 committees during the evaluation process.
Once the applying organization is determined to be “qualified” for accreditation, the process for accreditation starts from here.
To find out if your organization qualifies for the American Association of Continuing Medical Education® accreditation, please email us at: Accreditation (at) aacme (dot) org
