Enduring Materials Guide

• The activity must not simply be meant to provide “education for education’s sake.” It should be produced to increase physician knowledge/competence, change physician performance (influence behavior), and/or improve patient outcomes.
• Therefore, the activity must be planned to address identified professional practice gap(s) and the educational needs that underlie the gaps.
• The format of the activity should consider appropriate teaching and learning methods that will best achieve the learning objectives.
• The target audience must be identified, and the educational content delivered must be directly related to what the intended audience does in their professional practice. It must also be linked to specific physician competencies (insert link).
• The activity must be evaluated to determine its effectiveness at closing the educational gap (insert link to sample evaluation format).
• Planning must be independent of commercial influence. All persons, including planning committee members, faculty presenters, and content reviewers — who are in a position to control CME content — must disclose all financial relationships with an Ineligible Company (also known as commercial interests).

1. Develop the Activity Plan

1. Identify specific practice gaps and educational needs to inform your planning of topics and selection of speakers. The ACCME defines a practice gap as “the difference between what the professional is doing or accomplishing compared to what is achievable on the basis of current professional knowledge.” What is the problem you are trying to address with your activity?
2. Provide the sources you used to identify these practice gaps and educational needs. These could be newly published clinical practice guidelines or journal articles, quality improvement data, departmental discussion minutes, or other documentation of learner needs. How do you know the practice gap is present?
3. Write specific measurable objectives of what you believe the learners will be able to know how to do (competence), do (performance), or impact (patient outcomes) as a result of your CME activity. These learning objectives should be designed to close the gap you identified in Step 1. What are you seeking to change? [write the objective from the perspective of what the learner will do and not what the teacher will teach].
4. Choose an educational format to achieve your objectives and close your identified gap. CME activities should be designed for active learning. Consider utilizing cases, hands-on practice, and ancillary tools to help learners realize these goals. What type of activity do you think will best achieve your goals?
5. Create an evaluation plan to measure learner competence and/or skill; performance; or patient outcomes. How will you know if you achieved your goals?
   • Skills/competence is typically measured through surveys—conducted at the end of the activity, which measures an intent to change.
   • Performance may be measured through peer observation, submission of case studies, or follow-up surveys about actual change in practice—usually conducted 2-4 months after the activity.
   • Patient outcomes may be measured through quality improvement data, chart audits, or patient surveys. 
6. Link your plan to one or more Institute of Medicine or ACGME Physician Competencies. 

2. Complete the annual Course Activity Planning and Approval Form (CAF)

• Use the information derived from Step 1 to complete the CAF.
• Collect signatures from the Course Director and Department Chair.
• Include all documentation including:
  • Preliminary agenda (to assist in determining credit hours)
  • Signed Financial Relationship Disclosure Forms for ALL Planning Committee members.
  • Sources of needs assessment

3. The CAF will be reviewed by the OCME staff and Director.

Once your enduring material CAF has been approved, the enduring materials themselves must be reviewed and approved by Emory Continuing Medical Education (CME) prior to distribution to learners. Please submit all required content below along with this checklist to the CME office.

Required content: This content must be transmitted to the learner before the enduring material begins.

□   Sponsorship Statement (required)
The program is sponsored by the Emory University School of Medicine.

□   Title of enduring material (required)

As noted on the Course Approval Form (CAF). The title must match that on the CAF for CME credit.

□   Learning Objectives (required)

Begin with the phrase, “After participating in this CME activity, participants should be able to:” and then list the objectives in a bulleted format using action verbs. The objectives must match those on the CAF for CME credit.

□   Target Audience (required)

This information must match that on the CAF for CME credit.

□   Faculty Disclosure Statement (required)

It is the policy of the ACCME and Emory University School of Medicine to require disclosure of financial relationships from individuals in a position to control the content of a CME activity; to identify and mitigate relevant conflicts of interest related to those relationships; and to make disclosure information available to the audience prior to the CME activity.  Presenters are required to disclose discussions of unlabeled/unapproved uses of drugs or devices during their presentations.

□   Course Faculty with Institutional Affiliation and Credentials (required)

Please list faculty or include faculty page from promotional materials, and if appropriate. brochure.

□   Financial Disclosure Information for Course Faculty (required)

Relevant financial relationships of all persons that affect the content of the activity, including planners, instructors, and reviewers at a minimum, must be provided to learners via a CME tab or link or within the activity’s content at the beginning of the activity.

□   Accreditation Statement (required)

"Emory University School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians."

□   Credit Designation Statement (required)

The Emory University School of Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of ____ AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Participants can also earn up to ____ Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) contact hours. Emory Nursing Professional Development Center (ENPDC) is accredited as a provider of continuing nurse education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. CNE contact hours are awarded by ENPDC.

Note: The phrase AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ must be written in italics and must contain the superscripted trademark symbol.

□   Acknowledgement of Commercial Support/Grants (required)

Acknowledgement of commercial support (if applicable) must be made to the learners of the CME activity.  This must occur prior to beginning the activity or via a CME tab/link provided to the learners. No commercial logos may be used in the disclosure of commercial support to learners. If there is in-kind support for the activity (e.g., use of a medical device), Emory CME must indicate the use for which the in-kind support was provided.

□   Medium or combination of media used (required)

Please note the type of media used.

□   Estimated time to complete the enduring material (required)

Suggestion: Combine the content of these two requirements per the example below.

This enduring material consists of a PowerPoint presentation and post-test requiring approximately one-hour of your time. 

□   Method of physician participation in the learning process (required)

e.g.: To obtain CME credit for your participation in this activity, you must:

• View the presentation
• Complete the post-test with a passing score of at least 70%

□   Dates of original release and most recent update (required)            

□   Termination date (required)

Suggestion: Combine the content of these two requirements per the example below.

e.g.: The release date for this enduring material is March 1, 2020.  Credit expires on March 1, 2023.

□   Learner assessment (required)

Examples include but are not limited to patient-management case studies and post-tests. Post-tests will require a minimum of three questions that address diagnosis, management, and anticipated outcomes.

A minimum performance level must be established and expressed to learners before the enduring material begins.

e.g.: In order to be awarded credit for participating in this activity, a minimum score of 70% is required on the post-test.

□   Bibliographic sources (required)

At least one evidence-based reference (i.e., peer-reviewed article or guideline) is required.

□   Evaluation (required)

All individuals requesting credit must be given the opportunity to evaluate their learning experience.

1. Activity location: CME activities may not be hosted on a website owned or controlled by a commercial entity.
2. Links to product websites: Embedding links to healthcare-related company websites within the educational content of the online/enduring activity is prohibited.
3. Advertising: Advertising of any type is prohibited within the educational content of online CME or enduring material activities including, but not limited to, banner ads, subliminal ads, and pop-up windows.
4. Hardware/software requirements: Hardware and software requirements must be transmitted to the learner prior to the start of the activity.
5. Contact information: Contact information must be made available to the learner.
6. Policy on privacy and confidentiality: The direct/joint sponsor must adhere to and inform the learner of the following policy: Personal information is used for issuing a CME credit certificate and storing that credit in the Emory CME database.
7. Copyright: Documentation that the direct/joint sponsor owns the copyright for, or has received permissions for use of, or is otherwise permitted to use copyrighted materials within a CME activity on the internet.