The ACCME Data Dumps

Last Thursday the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)—the organization that accredits other organizations to provide certified CME in the United States—released detailed data on 729 providers. In an e-mailed press release, the ACCME's Chief Executive, Murray Kopelow, stated that these data were being made public in an effort to "increase the system's transparency and accountability."

Among the accredited providers, 124 (17%) received the designation of "Accreditation with Commendation" from the ACCME; 16 received commendation under the more stringent 2006 criteria, which is intended to foster providers' participation in "institutional or system-wide initiatives" to improve the quality of healthcare (whatever that entails exactly).

An examination of the ACCME's stats, which can be downloaded from the organization's web site, identifies all accredited organizations by name and their relevant data. The 16 commended providers include 8 academic institutions, 4 medical societies, 1 medical center (Memorial Sloan-Kettering), 1 government medical institute (the FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute), 1 professional-liability insurance company (Norcal Mutual), and 1 medical-education communications company, or MECC (Discovery). According to the ACCME's data, only 21% of all providers have been reviewed under the 2006 criteria.

A total of 33 providers (4.5%) are on "probation." The designation means that providers may continue to offer certified CME, but they are also required to show their plans to improve areas of noncompliance within a specified time. Contrary to popular expectations, MECCs are not disproportionately represented among the CME providers on probation. Among the warned providers that were assessed under the 2006 ACCME criteria (n = 15), there are 4 academic institutions, 4 MECCs, 3 medical societies, 3 hospitals, and 1 physician group. The 18 providers on probation that were not assessed under the 2006 criteria include 16 medical societies, 1 MECC, and 1 community-based organization.

Among all accredited providers, 81% reported receiving commercial (ie, pharmaceutical) support; 66% received income from advertising and exhibits. Of those 124 commended providers, only 14 (11%) did not receive commercial support; 4 of the 14, however, did report advertising and exhibits income.