The European Board for Accreditation in Cardiology (EBAC) supports “the aim of continuing medical education/continuing professional development (CME/CPD) to maintain and update medical competence in cardiovascular medicine. This includes
- interdisciplinary and inter-professional CME – training in social and communication skills
- methodological tools like evidence based medicine, quality assurance, total quality management etc.
The individual physician is free to choose the type and content of CME/CPD, which he/she considers as appropriate to meet his/her needs.” (from: EBAC Policy Statement and Accreditation Rules)
With this regard EBAC has considered a wide range of learning formats as suitable for accreditation. In live educational activities it has for a long time been accepted, that each contribution may not last 60 minutes (the lower limit to be awarded one full CME point) as long as the whole event lasts at least one hour.
E-Learning material, through unlimited access and flexibility of use, has enhanced meeting individual needs in CME by providing not only well established learning formats online, but even problem oriented “point of care”- information to support clinical decision-making in the individual patient. EBAC thus considers so-called “micro-e-learning” a valuable adjunct to more comprehensive learning formats.
EBAC differentiates between true micro-e-learning, which typically is represented by point-of-care decision support educational material, and educational units of less than 60 minutes duration (see also EBAC Newsletter 2016 IV, as attached to this mail).
In both categories EBAC has recently granted accreditation to the first two projects:
- micro-e-learning: UpToDate (www.uptodate.com)
UpToDate is used by physicians worldwide and has been accredited by the US-based accreditation body, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), since 2000. Based on the 2015 agreement on mutual recognition of substantial equivalency between EBAC and ACCME UpToDate has been accepted for provision of micro-e-learning. This has become possible by implementation of tracking software, which ensures that working in UpToDate complies with the “1 CME point for 1 hour of education”-principle, as applied for all other accredited CME activities. - educational units of less than 60 minutes duration: MEDCON international
Each CME accredited course consists of 3 video lectures with a duration of 20 minutes each, summing up to a total duration of 1 hour. Each lecture can be completed as individual module with pre/post testing, but a full CME point will only be granted once all three lectures have been completed. More information can be found under: https://pace-cme.org/browse/?k=COURSE&s=TITLE_ASC.
EBAC invites all providers with similar material in their educational portfolio to discuss with EBAC opportunities for accreditation as micro-e-learning activity.
With best whishes,
Robert Schäfer, MD
CEO EBAC