CME

A system for Continuing Medical Education (CME) is aimed to assure a high level of theoretic and clinical competence throughout the working life of medical specialists. CME provides educational activities, which allow doctors to maintain, develop and increase medical knowledge and skills and to improve their professional performance to ensure better and safer diagnosis and treatment for the patient.

At present there is no standardised system across Europe for accrediting CME activities and providing credits. Some European countries have established CME systems with a legal obligation to collect a certain number of credits in order to practice medicine, while in other countries no such system exists and CME is considered as an ethical and moral responsibility of each individual practitioner.

In Europe, the Union of European Medical Specialists (UEMS) has established the European Accreditation Council for CME (EACCME), aimed at facilitating the development of a common European CME system. This committee acts as an umbrella structure for the national CME authorities and guarantees the reciprocity of awarded CME credits in different European countries as well as with the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.