Plan CE Activity

Yale Continuing Education is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing education for healthcare providers . As such, Yale Continuing Education maintains the responsibility for assuring learners that CE-certified activities meet accepted standards of education that help increase the healthcare team’s skills and strategies, performance, and incorporate new knowledge to improve the quality of care for patients and their communities. Therefore, if you are preparing to develop a learning activity , here are some important concepts and steps to keep in mind.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) identifies, develops and promotes standards for quality interprofessional continuing education (IPCE). The accreditation criteria (including the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education) and policies are the practices that an accredited provider, such as Yale Continuing Education, must implement to achieve and maintain accreditation. Thus, if you are seeking CE credit from Yale Continuing Education for learning initiatives, you must follow established policies and practices designed to ensure that these standards are met.

All CE activities must:

• Be designed to change one or more of the following:
  • Skills/Strategy
  • Performance
  • Patient Outcomes
• Address professional practice gap(s). The practice gap is defined as the difference between current practice and “what is achievable on the basis of current professional knowledge”.¹
• Use needs assessment data to plan the activity.
• Have content that:
  • matches the intended learners’ current or potential scope of practice;
  • is designed to change learners’ skills/strategies, performance, or patient outcomes ; and
  • is delivered using educational formats appropriate for the setting, objectives and desired results of the activity.
• Be in compliance with the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education.
• Analyzes changes achieved as a result of the overall program’s activities/educational interventions.

1. Kaveh G. et al, Technical Review, Number 9, Closing the Quality Gap: A Critical Analysis of Quality Improvement Strategies Volume 1-Series Overview and Methodology, Publication No. 04-0051-1 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Contract No. 290-02-0017, August 2004.

The CE planning process generally follows the classic Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model for improvement, which can be depicted as follows.

The PDSA cycle is a simple yet powerful tool for accelerating improvement by developing a plan to test the change (Plan), carrying out the test (Do), observing and learning from the consequences (Study), and determining what modifications should be made to the test (Act).

Basically, you are asking the questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• How will we know that a change is an improvement?
• What changes can we make that will result in improvement?

If this is an annual event or a series of learning interventions, this model can be quite useful for measuring change, particularly in learners’ skills/strategies, performance, or patient outcomes.

For more information on PDSA in health care refer to:

• Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• PubMed

The Yale Continuing Education Application is the primary starting point that will help to lay a foundation and guide development. To get started, establish a planning team based on the “question in practice” (area of focus or concern) you want to address. With that in mind, the application will guide you through the following criteria:

• Identify practice gaps
• Provide needs assessment data
• Write objectives and expected results
• Identify an appropriate educational format(s)
• Suggest an appropriate educational format(s)
• List desirable physician attributes/core competencies that will be addressed
• Identify potential or known barriers to learning
• Examine patient safety concerns (if applicable)
• Determine how the activity will be evaluated against the objectives
• Identify pre/post test survey questions

Please allow ample time for the activity development process and notify Yale Continuing Education as far in advance as possible to begin the steps.

We encourage you to contact Yale Continuing Education at cme@yale.edu for information and assistance.

The financial requirements for obtaining CE accreditation, as well as the associated costs for program management services, will be discussed at the first planning meeting. To learn more about our accreditation fees please contact us at cme@yale.edu.

Yale Continuing Education provides “how-tos,” for the development, implementation and evaluation of CE activities. To view, please visit our Help section on our CloudCME LMS Website.

The Yale Continuing Education Application is the initial form required to start planning a CE activity. It is designed to help facilitate analyses and guide the planning process. Other forms will be required depending on the type of activity, the educational format selected, and whether or not commercial support will be initiated. But all activities require the following:

• Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships: Required for all Course Directors, planning committee members, speakers, moderators, etc. – anyone in a position to control content.
• Disclosure Summary or Slide: Disclosure information provided to learners prior to the start of the educational activity. Each presenter should have their disclosure information included at the beginning of their presentation.
• Basic Program/Speaker Evaluation form: A standard evaluation questionnaire used to elicit basic information following an activity. This is the minimum required. Methods of evaluation are determined by the objectives and desired results.

Please contact Yale Continuing Education for more information.