Guidelines for CME Providers
The Accreditation Council of Oncology in Europe will assess Distance Learning CME activities addressed to an international audience and submitted to it by organisations involved in CME in the field of oncology.
Organisers must be ready to provide a copy of their statutes and disclose their sources of funding upon request.
Please note that ACOE restrains its accreditation to web-based material; any other, i.e. CD-ROM, DVDs,.., are not evaluated. Also note that, for the moment, ACOE will not accredit e-books/handbooks.
In order to achieve this, the following standards will be applied to each educational Distance Learning material.
Guideline 1: Statement of intent
The provider should have a written statement of purpose or intent relating to the CME Distance Learning material. The statement should:
- Describe the goals of the educational Distance Learning activity
- Outline the characteristics of the potential users
- Specify any needs assessment performed prior to developing this Distance Learning material
Guideline 2: Provision of information to prospective users
The provider should ensure that likely users are informed about the content, nature and target group for the Distance Learning CME material. Within the material, the provider should:
- State the most important planned learning outcomes
- Indicate the optimum target group for the educational material
- State if there is an interactive tool included in the teaching methodology
- List the members of the editorial board
ACOE believes that interactive CME activities increase the knowledge and problem solving abilities of the users to a much higher extent than pure presentations.
Guideline 3: CME credits
The CME provider must provide the users with an estimate of how long the target group will take to complete the activity.
1 educational hour equals 1 credit (with a minimum of 1 credit per activity).
Guideline 4: Evaluation of the quality of the material
The CME provider must provide users with an evaluation tool. Users must be requested to fill in an evaluation questionnaire in order to assess the quality of the material.
Guideline 5: Self-evaluation instrument
The CME provider must provide users with a self-evaluation instrument aimed at testing the learning outcomes (for example, a multiple choice questionnaire).
The CME provider must give the relevant background information that leads to the correct answer.
Guideline 6: Certificate of participation
The delivery of the certificate of participation is linked to the completion of the evaluation form as described under guideline 4 and the passing of the test referred to under guideline 5. The CME provider will define the criteria for passing the test.
The CME provider must propose to users a convenient way of obtaining their certificate. A web-based system is recommended for Distance Learning materials.
Guideline 7: In case of e-CME material
Users must be informed of the minimum hardware/software required to run the programme. A policy on privacy and confidentiality should be in place and needs to be specified in the material.
Guideline 8: Validity of the ACOE accreditation
The accreditation of the material submitted to ACOE is valid for a period of two years from the date of confirmation of accreditation.
Guideline 9: Sponsorship
CME Organisers must guarantee that their education programme is free of any bias.
ACOE accepts that the industry may support an educational activity. ACOE asks for sponsorship provided by multiple commercial/pharmaceutical companies (more than 1) to guarantee the neutrality of the education provided.
The financial support provided by the commercial companies must be acknowledged on the Distance Learning modules.
Guideline 10: Distance Learning CME material generated from a live event
Distance Learning CME material generated from a live event must be the subject of a separate application. However, the same Councillors will be designated to evaluate the quality of the live event and the subsequent Distance Learning material produced.
Credits cannot be accumulated.
ACOE assesses individual CME activities in the field of oncology submitted by CME organisers.
CME organisers shall be organisations involved in continuing medical education for an international audience.
Following the newly approved guidelines for the accreditation of live educational events by the EACCME (document UEMS 2012/30 approved by the UEMS Council on 19th October 2012 and entered into force on 14 January 2013), ACOE and the UEMS/EACCME have signed a new agreement.
ACOE’s criteria are now fully in line with those of the UEMS / EACCME and all applications for live events must be submitted directly via the UEMS online system.
Under this agreement, ACOE’s Councillors retain their role of rewievers for oncology-related live events, while EACCME will submit all eligible applications in the field of Oncology for their evaluation to ACOE.