Communicating the critical importance of accredited continuing medical education (CME) to your organization's leadership can be challenging, but it is essential to highlight the value of your work and the impact of your CME program. CME improves the knowledge and performance of your physician learners, which translates to value for your organization immediately and in the long term.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has developed a new one-page resource, “Accredited CME Delivers,” to help you facilitate conversations with your stakeholders about:

• Improving patient safety
• Controlling spending
• Increasing physician recruitment and retention
• Protecting physician learners
• Using teams to improve care
• Expanding preventative care

Pro tips: Start by determining what is important to your stakeholders, use data from both your CME program analysis and from your organization, tie in your CME program to your organization’s health and success, tell this story as often as you can, and, most importantly, engage with your leadership!

At CMA’s recent Annual CME Provider Conference, participants discussed their own stories. Below are a few of the CME program impacts shared:

• Worked with physicians to create tailored content, resulting in increased learner engagement and successful recruitment
• Retained physicians by using CME about prioritizing physician wellness
• Improved health and outcomes by addressing patient diets
• Increased patient safety and empowered physicians with resources
• Controlled spending, improved care and increased attendance numbers due to moving to a virtual platform
• Partnered with department leaders to identify gaps/needs for future CME programming