AOE Compliance Connection – September 2026 Newsletter

Welcome to the September 2026 edition of AOE’s Monthly Newsletter. This edition of AOE Compliance Connection includes ACCME news on the American Board of Preventative Medicine and its CME for MOC/CC Collaboration, a new ACCME Certificate Program, a quick guide for gaps and needs assessment, and “maintenance” tips for providers Accredited with Commendation.

Don’t forget to check out AOE’s weekly compliance tips here—we drop a new tip every Monday!

The ACCME recently announced that the American Board of Preventative Medicine (ABPM) “has joined the CME for MOC/CC Collaboration to allow digital reporting of CME and Continuous Certification Program (CCP) credits.” As with other boards under the CME for MOC/CC Collaboration umbrella, this means diplomates can now find ABPM-registered activities in ACCME’s CME Passport portal to select registered activities that are pertinent to their needs.

If your team is producing education that is relevant to ABPM’s outlined continuous certification practice areas, and you’re interested in registering them for CCP credits, review the updated CME for MOC/CC Guide to see ABPM’s specific requirements.

You can read the full announcement/additional details here.

Note: the CME for MOC/CC Guide is frequently updated. If you register activities for MOC/CC credit, we encourage you to stay current! Updates and release dates are archived here.

For those interested in ACCME’s accredited CE intensives, registration for the Winter Cohort begins October 12 and will include the launch of a new program: the ACCME Certificate in Educational Design and Program Improvement. Per the ACCME, the new certificate program “will prepare participants to connect their CE programs with organizational mission and strategic priorities, design education intended to produce measurable improvements, assess learner and program-level change, and use outcomes data to strengthen program effectiveness and demonstrate educational impact.”

This is the third certificate program produced by the ACCME; existing programs include the ACCME Certificate in Implementing the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited CE and ACCME Certificate in Data Management for Accredited CE.

View registration details here. The programs will begin on January 4, 2027.

When it comes to accredited education that satisfies ACCME’s criteria, you cannot design successful educational interventions if you don’t know what requires changing in the first place.

And yet, we sometimes speak with course directors and planning committee members who cannot pinpoint the “why” behind an accredited activity.

To their credit, sometimes the purpose behind an activity is nearly instinctive: clinicians know where their colleagues are under-supported or under-trained, they know the blind spots, patterns and deficits in system processes and the quality of care delivered. They stay abreast of recent reports and studies. In this sense, they know what is needed.

To ensure compliance with the ACCME’s criteria, however, providers must be clear on the specific problem they are trying to solve with the activity at hand. What is the actual professional practice gap at hand, and going one level deeper, what is the underlying educational need? If these aren’t determined at the start of the educational planning process, the resulting design, implementation, and evaluation processes can get messy. Looking further ahead to program analyses and accreditation or reaccreditation time, the last thing you want is to be scratching your head wondering, “Wait, why did we do this one again?”

If you find that your proposed activity feels educationally valuable but lacks a specific purpose (i.e., clear problem to solve), here are AOE’s tips for gaps/needs assessment.

Go to the target audience.

You know who the activity is intended for. Do you have data from this audience that points to current, specific problems with their level of competence, performance, or patient care delivered? If the activity will apply to a broad audience (e.g., adult primary care providers), do you have data from a suitable sample (e.g., adult PCPs in your organization)? If possible, aim to collect data from your target audience to determine what the current problem is. For example:

• Distribute a survey to the targeted learners, or faculty/staff, to hear from them directly. They can tell you what is not working.
• Broach the topic at institutional departmental meetings. Chairs and department heads can provide a wealth of insight into where their current pain points are.
• If available/relevant to your organization, take medical chart audits and patient reviews into account, too. These can aid in further identifying ways in which your learners might not be delivering high/desirable quality of care.

Scenario/Example:

• An accredited provider distributes a survey to the target audience. Many report they are not knowledgeable on diagnoses/treatment methods for X Disease.
• The provider also sifts through recent patient reviews. In several reviews, patients with X Disease lament the level of care received and give poor ratings for management of their symptoms and lack of clear treatment plans from their provider.

Consult a range of sources to define current practice further, as well as best practice.

In addition to surveying the target audience, you can view larger scale data on current practice at local, regional, national, or international levels. To define what the preferred or “ideal” practice is, there is a wide range of sources you can use. Aim to integrate recent/current data when possible and applicable (i.e., make sure you are not only looking at sources that are 10+ years old). Sources might include:

• Census of diagnoses made by physicians
• Advisement from authorities in the field or other relevant organizations (e.g., government agencies)
• Data from peer-reviewed journals, government sources, or consensus reports, such as the RAND Corporation health care report cards
• Review of board examinations or re-certification requirements
• New technology or new methods of diagnosis/treatment
• Legislative, regulatory or organizational changes affecting patient care

Scenario/Example:

• The provider looks at data from peer-reviewed journals detailing a new method of diagnosis/treatment for X Disease, developed and widely publicized within the last 5 years. This method of diagnosis/treatment is both more accurate and lower-risk than other methods.

Observe the gap.

Once you’ve determined your current practice and best practice, you’ll see the professional gap between them. This is where those instinctive inklings are now anchored by a real, definable problem: you can see what your target audience isn’t doing, that they should be doing.

Dig a little deeper for educational need(s).

Now you need to determine what’s hindering your audience. Is it a lack of education, a lack of strategy/skills, or are they simply not doing something? This is the underlying educational need—either knowledge, competence, or performance based. Does the audience need current/updated information? Do they need instruction on how to do something? Do they need to do something differently? Once you determine the need(s), you have what you need to begin the educational planning process.

Scenario/Example:

• The provider determines that:
  • The target audience needs to be knowledgeable on X Disease and primary symptoms. (Knowledge)
  • The target audience should have a high-level overview of existing methods for diagnosis/treatment of X Disease. (Knowledge)
  • The target audience needs to know how to implement the new method for diagnosis/treatment of X Disease into their practice. (Competence)

For the purposes of this activity, the provider will focus on knowledge and competence needs (measured via changes in competence, which is the ACCME’s minimum requirement). From here, they’ll be able to determine more specific learning objectives and begin their educational design process.

If you are interested in assistance with gaps/needs assessment, please contact the AOE team here to discuss your current needs.

Last month, we included an overview of Accreditation with Commendation—a “what to expect” rundown for prospective applicants.

This month, we’ve turned our focus to our colleagues who already hold Commendation status.

You’ve made the leap. You’ve proven yourself. Your program exceeds the standard accreditation requirements. You’ve demonstrated your commitment to best practices and meaningful outcomes.

The next big challenge? Not resting on your laurels.

Maintaining Accreditation with Commendation takes strategic planning. Ideally, this is an always-on process—not something to procrastinate on or push to weeks within your next reaccreditation deadline.

Here are a few AOE suggestions for year-round Commendation “maintenance”:

• It’s recommended that accredited providers continue to evaluate the best-fit Commendation Criteria based on the menu of options.
  • Sometimes it can be helpful to use a green/yellow/red system to assess where your accredited CE program fully aligns with the Commendation criteria:
    • Green: best-fit
    • Yellow: potential fit/ongoing work is required and/or programmatic changes are necessary
    • Red: not a fit for the organization based on current program scope
• Engage in an ongoing evaluation of best-fit criteria at a frequency that works for your team (e.g., annually, bi-annually, quarterly). Once best-fit criteria are identified, you can strategically plan for initiatives that align with the Commendation Criteria.
• Some providers choose to aggregate evidence (e.g., specific activities, collaborations, examples) that meet their self-identified best-fit criteria during an annual program analysis/strategic planning session.
• Providers also need to be cognizant of their program size (# of activities over the accreditation term) as this impacts the number of examples for some criteria and some criteria have a 10% threshold.
  • In particular, if you are close to being one size or another, you’ll want to ensure that you pay close attention to the number of examples.

Implementing at least one of these practices can be immensely helpful in ensuring your program is on track to maintain Commendation.

Happy planning!

In case you missed it/reminder: the ACCME Learn to Thrive 2027 – Call for Proposals deadline is Tuesday, October 6. Visit this page for full details and submission guidelines.

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