Prescribed credit may be obtained for CME activities designed primarily for physicians. The content must relate directly to patient care, patient care delivery or certain non-clinical topics (see list below). A family physician who is an Active or Life AAFP member must be directly involved in the planning of the activity to ensure the relevance of the content to the specialty of family medicine.
To be eligible for reelection to membership, each AAFP Active member must complete 150 credits of approved continuing medical education every three years, of which a minimum of 75 credits must be Prescribed credit.
Prescribed Credit Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for Prescribed credit, the content of a CME activity must satisfy one or more of the following criteria:
- Have a direct bearing on patient care. As of 2002, the clinical content of CME must be based on one of the following in order to be eligible for Prescribed credit:
- Current, best research evidence integrated with clinical expertise and patient values
- Customary and generally accepted medical practice
- Have a direct bearing on family physicians' ability to deliver patient care. These topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Laboratory regulations
- Managed care / practice management
- Utilization review/quality assurance
- Coding
NOTE: The AAFP Commission on Continuing Professional Development (COCPD) considers practice management topics to be important for all aspects of a physician's medical practice. These topics may vary with geographic location and socioeconomic trends in a given area. Maintaining a viable, cost-effective, efficient practice is vital. Physicians must be informed of the broader aspects of the "business of medicine" in order to be accountable to their patients and to maintain a viable practice.
- Relate to selected non-clinical topics, including, but not limited to the following:
- Teaching, ethical, medico-legal and/or social responsibilities of the family physician.
- Faculty development
- Professional and/or academic leadership
- Physician-patient relations
- Communications
- Computer activities that have content related to patient care, patient care delivery, or selected non-clinical topics as described above are eligible for Prescribed credit.
- Viewing of hosted technical or scientific exhibits or poster sessions.
View a listing of activities that are NOT eligible for AAFP CME credit.
CME Credit Eligibility Requirements
