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Glossary of Terms

Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) - Organization that serves as the body accrediting institutions and organizations that offer continuing medical education.

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) - An independent, not-for-profit, physician-led organization that sets and monitors the professional educational standards essential in preparing physicians to deliver safe, high-quality medical care to all Americans.

Activity Coordinator - Staff member assisting the educational planner with the administrative and operational functions of the activity.

Activity Planning Team - A committee charged with assisting the educational planning, content delivery, and financial oversight of a CME activity.

American Medical Association (AMA) - The largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States.

American Psychological Association (APA) - The leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States.

CME Super User - Staff member identified by departmental leadership to liaise with the central Office of Continuing Medical Education and Lifelong Learning and local CME staff. Super Users participate in quarterly meetings, receive targeted training, and are expected to act as a departmental CME resource.

CME Faculty Lead - Faculty member selected by the department, center, institute, or basic science leadership personnel to identify, prioritize, and oversee all CME offerings within the department. The faculty lead is a member of the medical school CME advisory committee.

Continuing Medical Education (CME) - Educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession.

Financial Relationship Mitigator - An OCME-LL resource, the Financial Relationship Mitigator, works with the Educational Planners and Content Presenters to ensure that all identified conflicts are managed and that the educational activity is free from bias.

Continuing Education (CE) - A broad term that encompasses all types of ongoing learning across disciplines and professions.

Course - Educational content presented with live interaction with participants. Delivery Formats: In-Person or Internet Live. If a course is held multiple times for multiple audiences, then each instance is considered a separate course. Examples include annual meetings, quarterly meetings, conferences, and symposia.

Educational Co-Planner - A faculty member or other health professional assisting the educational planner with the educational planning, content delivery, and financial oversight of a CME activity.

Educational Planner - A University of Michigan faculty member with a University of Michigan Medical School faculty appointment, responsible for educational planning, content delivery, and financial oversight of a CME activity.

Employees - Individuals hired to work for another person or business (the employer) for compensation and who are subject to the employer's direction as to the details of how to perform the job.

Enduring Material - On-demand educational content, without live interaction. Delivery formats include: printed, web-based activities, archived webinars, monographs, PDFs, PowerPoints, podcasts, CD-ROMs, and DVDs.

Financial Relationships - Relationships in which the individual benefits by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Accredited providers must collect information from all planners, faculty, and others in control of educational content about all their financial relationships in any amount with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months.

Ineligible Company - Those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Internet Live Course - Live virtual educational content where the learner participates in real time. An internet live course is only available at a certain date and time.

Joint Providership - Providership of a CME activity by one or more accredited and one or more non-accredited organizations. This does not intend to imply that a joint providership relationship is an actual legal partnership.

Learning Objectives - Written, measurable statements indicating what the learner is expected to accomplish by expressing specific, short-range outcomes. Objectives are stated in behavioral or action-oriented terms (ie. Participants will be able to diagnose and treat patients by utilizing the skills gained from the education).

Maintenance of Certification (MOC) - a scheme developed by theAmerican Board of Medical Specialties where board certified by which physicians can demonstrate agreed standards of knowledge and performance to maintain existing board certification. Maintenance of Certification process is split into 4 parts:

  • Part I - Professionalism and Professional Standing - hold a valid and unrestricted medical license demonstrating continued professional behavior and conduct in the patient's best interest.
  • Part II - Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment - participate in continuing medical education, the quantity and focus of which is determined by each Member Board of the American Board of Medical Specialties.
  • Part III - Assessment of Knowledge, Judgment, and Skills - demonstrate an agreed standard of knowledge and performance by passing an assessment.
  • Part IV - Improvement in Medical Practice - demonstrate meaningful participation in quality (of care) improvement projects involving systematic measurement.

Marketing Materials - Any print or electronic communications developed to invite participation at a CME activity (i.e., email, invitation letter, brochure, flyer, website).

MiCME - The name of the CME-specific learning management system in use at the University of Michigan.

Mitigation Process - Steps taken to prevent all those with relevant financial relationships from inserting commercial bias into content.

Non-Physician Participant - Any individual besides an MD, DO, or resident engaged in a CME activity.

Office of Continuing Medical Education and Lifelong Learning (OCME&LL) - A Medical School Administrative office charged with maintaining the school’s status as an accredited provider of continuing medical education and for designating credit for educational activities.

Owners - Any individual engaged in a CME activity. Individuals who have an ownership interest in a company, except for stockholders of publicly traded companies, or holders of shares through a pension or mutual fund.

Participant (Learner) - Any individual engaged in a CME activity.

Performance Improvement CME (PICME) - A CME activity by which evidence-based performance measures and quality improvement (QI) interventions are used in a three-step process to help physicians identify patient care areas for improvement and change their performance.

Practice Gap - A gap between A gap between current practice and best practice.

Quality Improvement (QI) - Formal approach to the analysis of performance and systematic efforts to improve it.

Regularly Scheduled Series (RSS) - A primarily in-service educational series presented using multiple sessions occurring on an ongoing basis (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly). Examples include Grand Rounds, Tumor Boards, and M&M Conferences.

Relevant Financial Relationships (formerly known as Conflicts of Interest) - Any financial relationship which occurred in the twelve-month period before the time an individual was asked to assume a role controlling content of a CME activity, and which relates to the content of the educational activity, causing a conflict of interest.

University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) - Educational Pillar of Michigan Medicine, to which the Office of Continuing Medical Education and Lifelong Learning reports.