Accreditation Services
About Our Services
The Arizona Medical Association is proud to offer the service of voluntary accreditation to those providers of continuing medical education within the state of Arizona who wish to be recognized for meeting the high level of quality established by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and ArMA. ArMA is recognized by the ACCME through a program of equivalency to accredit intrastate institutions or organizations based on their implementation of accreditation requirements and policies to provide continuing medical education for physicians and other health professionals in Arizona and contiguous states.
ArMA does not accredit individual CME activities or events. Interested speakers should send a request to speak/present a topic to individual institutions in the List of Accredited Providers, and the institution may choose to present the CME topic at its discretion. Associations wishing to accredit an educational event through joint providership may contact one of the accredited providers listed below that has indicated it will accept applications for joint providership. Joint providership may also be offered by providers accredited by ACCME — a listing is available from the ACCME website.
Learn more about the local providers accredited by the Arizona Medical Association.
How to Become an Accredited Provider
To become an accredited provider, the organization must meet the ACCME definition of an eligible organization. Eligible organizations are those whose mission and function are: (1) providing clinical services directly to patients; or (2) the education of healthcare professionals; or (3) serving as fiduciary to patients, the public, or population health; and other organizations that are not otherwise ineligible.
The organization must:
- Be developing and/or presenting a program of CME for physicians on a regular and recurring basis.
- Not be an ineligible company.
- Not be developing and/or presenting a program of CME that is, in the judgment of the ACCME, devoted to advocacy on unscientific modalities of diagnosis or therapy.
- Present activities that have “valid” content.
Specifically, the organization must be presenting activities that promote recommendations, treatment or manners of practicing medicine that are within the definition of CME.
More Information on Eligibility
Providers are not eligible for accreditation if they present activities that promote treatments that are known to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits or are known to be ineffective in the treatment of patients. An ineligible company is a company whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. For more information on eligibility,
click here.
Creating & Managing a CME Program
For details on creating and managing a CME program, please contact ArMA Accreditation Coordinator, Peggy Paulson, at 507-330-4664 or by emailing ppaulson@AZmed.org. For providers seeking initial (provisional) accreditation, ArMA will meet with you to discuss the requirements of eligibility and the expectations of accredited continuing medical education prior to proceeding with a Pre-Application designed to give opportunity to assess and give feedback to an applicant prior to proceeding with an Initial Self-Study.
Demonstrating Compliance
All providers must demonstrate compliance with the applicable Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, Accreditation Criteria, and applicable policies of ACCME and ArMA.
Accreditation Resources
- ArMA Procedures for Reconsideration and Appeal of Adverse Accreditation Decisions
- ArMA Policy Regarding Inquiries and Allegations of Noncompliance that Arise Outside of the Accreditation Process
- UPDATED: American Medical Association (AMA) The Physician’s Recognition Award and Credit System, 2017 Revision
- 2024 Policy Update on Credit Calculation for Presentation at Live CME Activities
- ACCME Accreditation Criteria
- ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education
- CE Educator’s Toolkit
- ACCME Policies
- ArMA's Accredited Providers
Accreditation Forms
Pursuing Initial (Provisional Accreditation) Documents
- Pre-Application for Accreditation
- ArMA Guide to the Process for Initial Accreditation
- Self-Study Report Outline (Initial Accreditation and Reaccreditation)
- ArMA Performance-in-Practice Structured Abstract
- ArMA Performance-in-Practice Structured Abstract Individuals in Control of Content Schedule
Reaccreditation Documents
- ArMA Guide to the Process for Reaccreditation
- ArMA Self-Study Report Outline (with optional Commendation Criteria)
- ArMA Performance-in-Practice Structured Abstract
- ArMA Performance-in-Practice Structured Abstract Individuals in Control of Content Schedule
Pursuing Accreditation with Commendation (Optional)
To be eligible for Accreditation with Commendation, CME providers must demonstrate compliance with all of the Core Accreditation Criteria, in addition to eight criteria from the commendation menu. Choosing from the menu, providers need to demonstrate compliance with any seven criteria of their choice, from any category, plus one criterion from the “Achieves Outcomes” category, for a total of eight criteria. Visit ACCME for resources to help providers achieve Commendation. Commendation is available only with reaccreditation, not with initial accreditation.
All providers must demonstrate compliance with the applicable Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education and applicable policies.
Supplementary Resources
- Pre-Application for Accreditation
- Guide to Initial Accreditation
- Guide to Reaccreditation
- Structured Abstract Worksheet
- Self-Study Report Outline (Initial Accreditation and Reaccreditation)
- Self-Study Report Outline (Commendation)
Questions
For further information, please contact ArMA's Accreditation Coordinator Peggy Paulson at 507-330-4664 or by emailing ppaulson@AZmed.org.
