ACCME Testing Online System to Collect, Evaluate CME Activity Data

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, or ACCME, is testing an online reporting system designed to improve the transparency, efficiency and accountability of the CME enterprise, as well as to save CME providers time and hassle by streamlining the accreditation process. The Program and Activity Reporting System (3-page PDF; About PDFs), or PARS, is a Web-based portal that will permit the ACCME to collect and analyze up-to-date, comprehensive data from ACCME-accredited CME providers.

Currently, PARS is being pilot-tested by selected accredited providers, the ACCME said in an Oct. 27 press release. When the pilot test is completed, ACCME-accredited providers will be able to try out the system during an exhibition phase.

PARS is scheduled to go live during the first quarter of 2010, the ACCME said.

The ACCME has released preliminary technical specifications that CME providers will need to automate file exports from their internal activity tracking systems.

According to the ACCME, PARS will be accessible to accredited providers through secure logins, but not to physician learners or the public. Providers will input the same information that is currently required for reaccreditation, along with several additional data points that, ultimately, will produce a more robust description of the CME enterprise.

For example, accredited providers will be asked to designate "subcategories" for courses (live and Internet-based) that indicate the type of interaction planned within the course, such as case-based discussion, skills-based training, small group discussion or lecture.

The ACCME also will ask providers to designate, at a general level, each activity's content area. This will allow the ACCME to collect, analyze and report on the curricula of accredited CME nationwide.

PARS will record separately the amount of commercial support grants and the nature of any in-kind commercial support. Providers also will be asked to report the amount of advertising and exhibit income received for each activity.

Also, noted the ACCME, in addition to its use in the reaccreditation process, the system will aggregate each provider's CME activity and program information to produce the required ACCME annual report, thus freeing providers from the need to submit annual report data through a separate system.