Europe
Continuing Medical Education systems evolve independently in each European state. The collection of CME credits is currently more important in some European states than others.
UEMS
EACCME
To facilitate the recognition of CME credits awarded to doctors attending events outside of their home country by the medical authorities within their home state, UEMS set up in January 2000 a clearing-house system for CME credits – the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME).
EACCME is a UEMS body and is governed by the UEMS Council and managed by the UEMS Executive Committee. EACCME. In the field of Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) the EACCME will serve this purpose by ensuring accessibility to CME activities and securing European exchange of CME credits for medical specialists in Europe.
EACCME does not have the facilities to evaluate or accredit conferences itself and only consider events, which have already received accreditation from an accrediting body such as the ACOE.
The EACCME system works by setting down standards, which an accrediting body must agree to apply in evaluating a conference. ACOE guidelines comply with the EACCME standards for accreditation.
EACCME endorsement is advantageous to conferences where delegates are expected from multiple countries and wish to collect valid CME credits.
To grant European CME credits to an event, the EACCME will ask the competent national authority where the event takes place to evaluate the quality of the event. Once this evaluation is performed and therefore the event approved by the competent national authority, the event is granted European CME credits that are valid in all European countries participating in the EACCME system.
Agreement between UEMS/EACCME and ACOE
In 2007, a Mutual Agreement was signed between the UEMS/EACCME and ACOE. Under the terms of this agreement, all applications in the field of Oncology will be evaluated by ACOE in terms of quality and independence of the CME events. In this evaluation process, ACOE will work according to EACCME rules and will liaise with the UEMS/EACCME office for submission of the accreditation requests to the relevant National Accreditation Authority in order to obtain their recognition of the European Accreditation.
Please click here to download the UEMS/EACCME - ACOE agreement.
Mutual Recognition of CME credits - Overview of the situation
ACOE is monitoring developments on CME accreditation in the 27 EU Member States including progress on the mutual recognition of CME credits. It is therefore setting up initiatives to stimulate the exchange of views and practices between the national CME competent authorities in order to facilitate the mutual recognition of CME credits in Europe. ACOE conducted a survey in 2009 on the CME situation in the 27 EU Member States and jointly organised a workshop with the European School of Oncology (ESO) and under the auspices of the UEMS: Towards a harmonised CME system in Europe (September 2009).
To find out more please click on the corresponding documents below:
Presentations - CME Workshop
Session 1: CME in Europe: state of play, issues and challenges
CME e-learning activity - European endorsement
The UEMS European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) is establishing a European system similar to the one in place for CME events.
Page last modified: 07 Sep 2010