To begin, determine activity goals and your target audience. If 2 or more professions are involved, consider applying as an interprofessional activity:

• Activity offers an opportunity to learn with and about each other (ex: through panel discussion, question and answer segments, etc)
• Activities are designed to change skills, strategy, team performance or patient outcomes

Form a planning committee that includes a representative from each target audience sector you wish to award credit to. Immediately collect disclosures from committee members. If a planning member has a disclosure, be sure to complete the Disclosure Mitigation Form (PDF) as soon as possible to determine eligibility. Contact us with questions.

Document all meetings using the Planning Committee Minutes Form (PDF) to upload with your application

Program objectives should suit everyone on the healthcare team and can have individual objectives per represented specialty. Be prepared to define what learners should gain from the activity.

In this section, define why this training experience is relevant. What is the current state, and what would your ideal outcome be?

Upload gap documentation into your application.

Example: Infection rates of hospitalized patients increased. Data shows that handwashing before and after entering a patient’s room decreases infection rates. Documentation for this gap includes hospital infection rate data and peer reviewed research on handwashing.

All committee members and organizers need to declare any financial relationships with ineligible companies at the beginning of the planning process. See the Data Reporting FAQ's page through the ACCME to review ineligible companies. Disclosure forms are released through Highmarks. Disclosure Mitigation Forms (PDF) are needed for any organizers to determine their eligibility to participate in planning the learning activity. 

All faculty speakers, moderators or panel members need to be documented into the application leadership section. A notification will be sent via email to complete their disclosures once added to the application. Be sure to review completed disclosures to ensure none expire prior to the start of your activity. 

For any Regularly Scheduled Series (RSS) applications or visual presentations, upload a completed disclosure form found on the resources page. 

Consider sharing this Content Validity Overview (PDF) with your faculty and planning members

Ask the Course Director or desired program coordinator to complete the Course Director Attestation Form (PDF) and upload it with your application. Course Directors should have clinical expertise and no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

All patient care recommendations must be based on current evidence and clinical reasoning, with a fair and balanced perspective of diagnostic or therapeutic options.

All scientific research referenced, reported or used in justification of any patient care recommendations must conform to standards of experimental design, data collection, analysis and interpretation. 

Although accredited continuing education is an appropriate place to explore new and evolving topics, these areas must be clearly identified within any program activities. You must facilitate these topics without advocating for, or promoting practices that are not yet based on current scientific evidence and clinical reasoning. 

Content cannot be included if it advocates for unscientific methods to diagnose, treat, or promotes a manner of practicing healthcare that are determined to have risks that outweigh the potential benefits, or are known to be ineffective treatments. 

It is critical for the University of Vermont office of Continuing Medical and Interprofessional Education to encourage discussion and educational offerings of sensitive, new, or evolving topics in medicine. Our Joint Accreditation Standards require that we ensure learning opportunities are fair, balanced and any presented clinical content supports safe, effective patient care. We recognize topics that are new, sensitive or evolving have the potential to be biased by polarized public policy debates and is an ongoing challenge.

If you are preparing learning activities covering such topics, we recommend sending the agenda to our team prior to application submission to help expedite the review process. We require a review of content validity for sensitive and novel topics, and when necessary, elicit input from local content experts. Without connecting with our team, there could be a delay or denial to provide credits.

For more information, please review the Accreditation Council’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education Guide.

Please upload any marketing materials you wish to use. Any materials that mention credits need approval prior to distribution. 

Please do not market an event as “credit pending”.

Any commercial support must have a letter of agreement signed by a CMIE representative prior to the activity start date. Please send the letter of agreement for approval to the CMIE, or complete the Support From Ineligible Companies Agreement form (PDF). 

You may share names or contact information if you have consent from participating learners. Please consider requesting release during the registration process with clear and informed option to participate. 

Consider how the proposed program measures success after the learning event. 

Reflect on program goals and documented gap. How will participants change their practice, collaboration or skills as a result of this learning?

Surveys should be distributed to participants one month after learning experience. 

Reminder! To receive credit or certificate, you must attest your attendance within 30 days of the learning activity. Some programs require a completed program evaluation.