Welcome to the April 2026 edition of AOE’s Monthly Newsletter! This edition of AOE Compliance Connection includes MOC updates from ACCME, a new series on learning outcomes, and the Alliance 2027 call for abstracts.
Don’t forget to check out AOE’s weekly compliance tips for actionable advice your team can use for compliance success.
Accreditation Board Bulletin: MOC/CC Updates from ACCME/JA
Last month, we shared ACCME/JA’s announcement that the American Board of Thoracic Surgery (ABTS) plans to end self-reporting of CME credits by diplomates. In other news, the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPMR) has joined the CME for MOC/CC collaboration with ACCME. Accredited providers can now register suitable activities (i.e., those that meet ABPMR’s specific requirements) with a launch date of on/after January 1, 2025 for ABPMR CC credit via PARS.
Visit ACCME’s MOC/CC page to stay current on collaborating boards and requirements.
Compliance Help: Measuring Learning Outcomes
This is the first installment of a three-part series.
Considering that improvements in competence, performance and/or patient outcomes serve as the nucleus of ACCME’s Core Accreditation Criteria, it’s imperative that providers master planning, implementation and evaluation methods to achieve them.
Occasionally, we encounter providers that spend considerable time and resources on the planning and implementation phases of accredited CE, but lack a clear, well-defined evaluation method to effectively track the impact of their activities. In these cases, providers are actually producing high quality education and stimulating real changes in their learners, but the evaluation fizzle-out makes performance-in-practice and self-study reporting incredibly difficult. Often times, the reason behind poorly tracked learning outcomes is a slippery grasp on how to effectively analyze change in line with ACCME’s definitions and expectations.
Let’s talk about competence, to start.
Competence
For the purposes of ACCME accreditation, the board uses “Miller’s (1990) definition of competence as “knowing how” to do something. Knowledge, in the presence of experience and judgment, is translated into ability (competence) – which has not yet been put into practice. It is what a professional would do in practice, if given the opportunity. The skills, abilities and strategies one implements in practice is performance. See Miller GE. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med. 1990; 65(9 Suppl):S63-7.” (This is sourced from ACCME here).
In other words, accredited providers aiming to change learner competence are expected to dually evaluate:
1) if the learners now have the ability to do something in practice, and
2) if the learners will put the ability into practice once given the opportunity to do so.
To evaluate the first item, a provider is primarily looking at acquired knowledge. As such, the evaluation should include questions that directly connect to the learning objectives for the activity and items derived directly from the education. We are big proponents of including case-based questions (as appropriate to the activity) as they give learners the opportunity to apply knowledge to “real-world” clinical scenarios, and in essence, show the provider they are capable of applying their ability into practice in the future.
To evaluate the second item, a provider needs to directly ask their learners to indicate their intent to make a change in their practice. Intent is all the provider can reasonably gauge at this point. This is an important point of clarification, as some providers ask their learners “Did you make a change in your practice?” on an evaluation survey provided to learners immediately (i.e., within seconds or minutes) following their completion of the activity.
These elements must be evaluated together: measuring the first piece only equates to a simple knowledge check, while measuring the second piece only is a mere gauge of intent (i.e. learners who desire to make a change but haven’t demonstrated their grasp of new knowledge/skills).
Up next month: measuring changes in performance.
If you are in need of guidance/support with measuring and reporting learning outcomes to meet accreditation board requirements, please contact the AOE team here to discuss ways we can help.
CE Community: Alliance 2027 Call for Abstracts
The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Processions (ACEHP) is accepting abstracts for the Alliance 2027 Annual Conference, now through Monday, June 15. The 2027 conference theme is United in Purpose: Generation Voices, Shared Visions, “highlighting the power of collaboration and the value of diverse perspectives.” Applicants can submit abstracts for 60-minute sessions or 90-minute workshops, with an emphasis on practical uses, interactive components, and clearly defined takeaways (i.e., learning objectives and deliverables). Priority topic areas for the 2027 conference are:
- Accreditation, Standards and Compliance
- Outcomes, Measurement and Data Storytelling
- Program and Project Management, Workflow Optimization and Operational Excellence
- Budgeting, Financial Sustainability and Funding Models
- Leadership, Professional Growth and Workplace Well‑Being
- Instructional Design and Innovative Learning Formats
- Collaboration and Cross‑Functional Partnerships
- Practical, Action-Oriented AI
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI) in CE/CME
- The Future of CE/CME: Evolving Practice, Emerging Models and Preparing for What’s Next
Visit the Alliance website here for full details.
Upcoming Events
- 2026 Joint Accreditation Leadership Summit
May 5, 2026, Chicago, IL
Read More >> - ACCME – Learn to Thrive 2026
May 6-8, 2026, Chicago, IL
Read More >> - 2026 ACCME Accreditation Workshop
August 25 – 26, 2026, Chicago, IL
Read More >> - ABMS Conference 2026
September 16 – 18, 2026, Chicago, IL
Read More >>
