Standards for Continuing Medical Education in Armenia and NKR

AMIC welcomes the introduction of a requirement for 45 hours of Continuing Medical Education per year for physicians practicing in Armenia. This requirement was enacted in May 2016. This 45 hour annual requirement compares with 50 hours for Russia and 25 hours for the United States. It is expected that physicians will take advantage of online, computerized and printed resources to supplement live activities.

Standards for Continuing Medical Education in Armenia are being developed by the Ministry of Health and Yerevan State Medical University. The standards should ensure that the continuing medical education is evidence based, free of commercial influence, and aimed at addressing the needs of the population.

Continuing Medical Education in USA follows a process outlined by the American College of Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).  It involves identification of "practice gaps", which include deficits in knowledge, skills, performance or patient outcomes.  Learning activities are intended to address these practice gaps by teaching skills, improving physician performance and/or improving patient outcomes.  Consideration should be given to appropriateness of the teaching methodology, recognizing that an hour-long lecture is not always the best way to change physician behavior.  

There are strict guidelines for ensuring that learning activities are free of commercial bias.  Financial relationships with commercial interests must be disclosed by all persons in control of course content.  (This includes speakers, course planners and CME committee members.)  The ACCME definition of Commercial Interest may be found at this link.  It is not necessary to disclose the amount of money involved.  It is the responsibility of the CME committee, not the speaker, to determine whether a financial relationship is relevant to course content.  

It is expected that some sort of followup evaluation will determine whether the learning activity achieved its goal.  The goal of the educational activity should be expressed in terms of physician competence, physician performance or patient outcome.  "Knowledge" or "awareness" is not a satisfactory goal.

Continuing Medical Education credit can be granted to physicians by organizations accredited by the ACCME or one of their designates.  The Institute for Medical Quality (www.imq.org) is designated by ACCME to accredit CME providers in California (including the Armenian-American Medical Society).

Organizations such as AMIC or YSMU may want to seek accreditation by the American Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). ACCME routinely works with developing countries to accredit their medical education programs and bring them to Western standards. A happy side effect of this accreditation would be that Armenia could grant Continuing Medical Education credits to Western learners attending the International Medical Congress of Armenia and other educational activities.

(Note: While we refer to Continuing Medical Education, we avoid the use of the terms "CME" or "CME credit", as these terms are copyrighted by the American Medical Association.)