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  • Commission on Continuing Professional Development (COCPD)

    The Commission on Continuing Professional Development works directly to support the AAFP's Strategic Objective on Clinical Expertise (Education) by supporting the lifelong learning of family physician members and other health care professionals. The goals of the commission are to guide the AAFP's Credit System and the AAFP’s provision of continuing medical education that helps members and other health care professionals demonstrate continuous improvement in knowledge, competence, practice performance, and patient outcomes, as well as fulfill the educational requirements for licensure and certification.

    The COCPD’s priority areas of attention include:

    1. AAFP CME Accreditation (of various credit categories)
      a. Oversee periodic review of AAFP CME credit requirements to reaffirm or if appropriate, recommend changes or enhancements to said requirements.
      b. Oversee the review of applications for AAFP CME credit, to evaluate whether the application for credit should be approved or denied.
      c. Interact with other entities when appropriate to collaborate on matters pertaining to scope of work, such as educational aspects of the AAFP’s requirements for membership re-election.                                                
    2. Development, presentation, maintenance and refinement of existing and novel CME/CPD delivery methods and modalities.
    3. CME/CPD aspects of Continuing Board Certification (formerly Maintenance of Certification) and Maintenance of Licensure (MOL, including self-assessment and lifelong learning, assessment of knowledge and skill, and improvement of performance in practice. This can include discussion and collaboration with colleagues affiliated with other accreditation systems, regulatory entities, certifying and licensing boards and other oversight bodies.
    4. Performance Improvement CME (PI-CME), including support for the AAFP’s educational content library and other educational activities.
    5. AAFP CME’s Curricular Framework. The framework defines the scope of topics for which educational activities are designed, to ensure that AAFP CME activities are evidence-based and designed to address gaps in professional practice performance as determined through needs assessments conducted as a fundamental part of CME activity planning.
    6. Oversight of the planning, provision and evaluation of all AAFP-provided CME activities, including sessions offered through the Family Medicine Experience (FMX) annual meeting, national courses, procedure workshops, journals and subscriptions, and other means.

    Members serve a four-year term. Members of the COCPD meet twice each year, (January/February and May/June, with meeting months varying each year) along with the other commissions. They also participate throughout the year in fulfilling the commission’s responsibilities. This can include, for example, document review and discussion via social media; participation in conference calls, webinars, and various work groups; representation of the commission on AAFP’s cross-commission committees, and so on, as needed.

    Note: The COCPD Executive Committee (specifically, the chair and 4th year commission members), will be independent of conflicts of interest during their time of tenure as defined in the AAFP Policy COCPD leaders and CME Activity leads have no COI.

    Reimbursement

    The Commission on Finance and Insurance establishes reimbursement policies for commission members. Members are reimbursed as follows:

    • A per diem payment when traveling or attending meetings or other events on behalf of the commission or committee.
    •  Reimbursement will be made of documented actual travel expenses up to the cost of the lowest refundable coach airfare. The cost of parking personal autos and/or transportation between home and airport and airports and meeting sites is reimbursed, in addition to and separate from the per diem.

    Additional detail on reimbursement policies is included in the commission/committee member orientation manual.

    Are you interested in participating in this commission?

    • First, contact your chapter prior to starting/submitting an application. 
    • Then, complete the online Commission Nomination Form (open 7/15/2022 through 10/15/2022).

    Are you interested in participating in the commission's leadership?

    • First, contact your chapter prior to starting/submitting an application.
    • Then, you should download and review the Commission Chair Nomination Form (will open 5/15/2022).
    • You may also want to read the 2021 Commission Chair Orientation Manual to get an understanding of the responsibilities you will have if you are selected to be the chairperson of a committee.