Last Updated on August 31, 2026 by Don Gerig, RDCS
I recently had the opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) in Chicago.
I went in expecting to learn more about the rules, the processes, and the mechanics of accredited continuing medical education. And I did.
But what really stuck with me was something much bigger.
ACCME accreditation is not just about being able to hand out AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Sure, the credit is important, but it’s almost the least interesting part of being accredited.
What ACCME accreditation really represents is a commitment to providing continuing medical education that’s relevant, evidence-based, independent, and designed to improve the way healthcare professionals care for patients.
In other words, a commitment to doing education the right way.
That means designing education based on a real need, not simply a topic someone might find interesting. It means asking what physicians and other healthcare professionals are actually struggling with, where practice is falling short, and what types of education might actually help.
It means being intentional about the outcome. Are we trying to improve knowledge? Competence? Performance? Patient care?
And then comes the harder question: did the education actually work?
Those questions were woven through nearly everything we discussed at the workshop.
Another theme that came up repeatedly was educational independence.
Accredited education should not be a sales pitch wearing a CME badge. It shouldn’t exist to promote a product, steer a learner toward a company, or quietly blur the line between education and marketing.
Financial relationships have to be identified. Relevant financial relationships have to be mitigated. Content needs to be scientifically valid, balanced, and free from commercial influence.
None of that is particularly glamorous. But all of it is important.
Healthcare professionals should be able to walk into, or log into an accredited educational activity knowing that work has been done behind the scenes to protect the integrity of what they’re about to learn. That’s a responsibility CardioServ takes seriously.
What This Means for CardioServ
For CardioServ, this changes the way we think about education.
We don’t start with the question, “What course should we create next?”
The question we ask is, “What problem are we trying to solve?”
Our work puts us close to physicians, sonographers and healthcare organizations across the country. Through quality improvement consulting, peer review and day to day realities of cardiovascular imaging, we see where challenges occur.
And those challenges become opportunities for meaningful education.
When recurring issues are identified in a facility’s clinical process, we have an opportunity to investigate what is actually driving them.
Why is the gap occurring? Is it a skills gap? A knowledge gap? Is it a systems problem? Is there a misunderstanding of current guidelines?
Once we understand the cause, we can build education around the actual problem instead of starting with a broad topic and hoping it applies.
To me, that’s where accredited education becomes especially valuable. It gives us a framework for connecting what we see happening in clinical practice with education specifically designed to address it.
Where We Go From Here
These principles will continue to shape CardioServ’s educational work, including our peer review initiatives, quality improvement programs, the Better Cardiology CME platform, and future CME activities.
There’ll still be forms to fill out. Disclosures, planning documents, evaluations and reporting requirements are a part of the process. There’s no escaping that side of accredited education.
But after spending time at the ACCME workshop and speaking with other CME professionals, I have a much better appreciation for why these requirements exist.
They force us to slow down just long enough to ask whether an educational activity has a legitimate purpose, whether it is being developed responsibly, and whether it has a reasonable chance of helping someone become better at what they do, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
That’s the standard.
And as an ACCME accredited provider, it’s a standard CardioServ is taking seriously.
Don Gerig, RDCS
Medical Education Manager
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