Stay Certified
Continuing Medical Education
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
As part of the ABS Continuous Certification Program, diplomates are required to earn a certain amount of CME credits over a five-year period.
CME and Self-Assessment
Category-1 CME
As part of Continuous Certification, the ABS requires diplomates to earn 150 credits of Category-1 CME over five years. The CME must be relevant to their practice, or if clinically inactive, to the broad discipline of surgery.
Category-1 CME activities are formal educational experiences accredited by the AMA, ACCME, RCPSC or EACCME. These may include seminars, conferences, grand rounds, webinars, podcasts, skills courses and departmental scientific meetings. Check with your CME provider or the ACCME’s CME Passport website to find CME activities that meet ABS Continuous Certification requirements.
CME courses completed for state licensing requirements and on topics such as ethics, patient safety, surgeon leadership, etc., are accepted. Diplomates who hold multiple ABS certificates do not have to repeat the CME requirement for each certificate.
The ABS expects that each CME credit corresponds to one hour of time spent on the activity. Therefore, the ABS will generally not accept more than 12 credits of CME earned in a single day.
CME is counted over a five-year rolling basis and credits expire five years from the date the activity was completed. Diplomates should check the CME repository in their ABS portal for information about the current five-year window.
Tracking CME: Use the ABS CME Repository to track CME earned within the current five-year period.
Self-Assessment
At least 50 of the 150 CME credits must include a self-assessment component (test or quiz that requires at least 75% correct). When you participate in a CME activity that includes self-assessment (SA), the SA credits will be transferred to ABS along with the Category-1 credits via the PARS system. Check the ACCME’s CME Passport website to find CME activities that meet ABS Continuous Certification requirements.
Activities with self-assessment will be denoted with “SA” (e.g., ABS Point: 1; ABS Credit Type(s) CME, SA).
The 150 CME credits/50 self-assessment requirement will change to 125 CME credits with no self-assessment required once a diplomate passes their first Continuous Certification Assessment. See below for additional information about the waiving of CME.
Waiving of CME
The ABS will waive a certain number of CME credits for various situations
The 150 CME credits/50 self-assessment requirement will change to 125 CME credits with no self-assessment required once a diplomate passes their first Continuous Certification Assessment, beginning January 1 of the year following the first successful assessment attempt.
The ABS will also waive 60 credits of CME with self-assessment for new diplomates who pass an initial certifying exam. A waiver for 60 credits will appear in their CME Repository.
If a diplomate achieves initial certification by another ABMS board, they may also waive 60 credits of CME with self-assessment. These diplomates should contact the ABS to submit their request. Documentation must be provided if requested.
Diplomates in a fellowship will receive a CME waiver for the time they spent completing training (up to 24 months). These diplomates can earn up to 2.5 CME credit waivers per month for a fellowship that is 12-24 months in duration and accredited by the ACGME or a surgical organization with a formal accreditation process (e.g., SSO, ASTS, ACS, Fellowship Council, etc.). Details about the fellowship must be provided via the diplomate’s ABS portal.
Submitting Information
Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
ABS’s collaboration with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) streamlines the process through which diplomates monitor and report their CME credits to fulfill ABS Continuous Certification Program requirements.
When a diplomate registers for an accredited CME activity, they should ask the CME provider if they will report their participation to ACCME. The diplomate will need to give the CME provider the following information:
- first name;
- last name;
- month and day of birth; and
- permission to share this information with the ACCME and the ABS.
Once the activity is completed, the CME provider will collect and submit the diplomate’s credit information to the ACCME. These credits will then automatically appear in their ABS CME repository – no transfer or manual entry is needed.
In order for this process to work, the diplomate must give the CME provider permission to share their learner data with the ABS. Providers may ask for the diplomate’s ABS ID# when registering for the activity, which can be found in the ABS Surgeon Portal by navigating to the Personal Profile page and then scrolling down to the Demographic Information section. For more information on this process, see our process overview, collaboration announcement, and CME FAQs.
Visit ACCME’s CME Passport to search the list of accredited CME activities that count towards ABS Continuous Certification and ongoing certification requirements.
NOTE: ACCME’s CME Passport website is hosted and maintained by the ACCME, not by the ABS. For questions or concerns related to any activities listed in the CME Passport, please contact the ACCME or the CME provider directly.
If the CME organization doesn’t know how to report credit, they should be directed to info@accme.org, and the staff at the ACCME will help them get their activity registered and show them how to report CME credit.
Since 2021, the ABS collaboration with the ACCME has enabled ABS diplomates to have over a million CME credits automatically transferred into their ABS CME repositories – no manual entry required.
Total Credits Earned
1661235
Unique Learners
24906
Total Successful Submissions
509999
# of Providers Who Registered Activites
390
*Data as of 12/03/2024
For diplomates who use ACS MyCME
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has recently launched an updated process to transmit CME credit from ACS MyCME to the ABS via the ACCME. The process to send credits from ACS MyCME to the ABS is nearly identical to the previous transfer process. ACS fellows should:
- log in to ACS MyCME;
- provide their ABS ID;
- select the date range for CME credit earned; and
- grant permission for the data transfer.
For help with this process, ACS fellows should contact ACS MyCME at mycme@facs.org.
Auditing
No documentation is required at the time when CME credits are logged by a diplomate in their portal using one of the above methods. However, please note that the ABS audits a percentage of diplomates each year. Diplomates who are selected for audit will need to supply documentation of completed CME activities.
AMA Credit
Diplomates may apply to the AMA to receive credit for completed activities
Diplomates who pass an ABS Continuous Certification Assessment may also apply to the AMA to receive 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. The AMA will also grant credit for teaching at a live CME activity, being first author on a published article, and obtaining a medically related advanced degree. Please see the AMA website and the direct CME application for details.
Please note that it is not necessary to apply for formal AMA credit to get a CME waiver from the ABS. The ABS will waive a certain number of CME credits for various situations, such as when a diplomate achieves initial certification or passes an ABS Continuous Certification Assessment. These waivers are applied directly to the diplomate’s CME repository by the ABS. See above for additional information about the waiving of CME.
Self-Assessment Resources
Where to find CME activities and CME activities including self-assessment
For more information on available CME activities that have been registered with the ACCME, please go to the CME Passport website.
You can also use CME Passport to find activities that include self-assessment. Simply filter the resources using the “Self-Assessment (ABS)” filter underneath “MOC Credit Types”. Each activity with self-assessment will be denoted with “SA” (e.g., ABS Point: 1; ABS Credit Type(s) CME, SA).
The ABS highly values the CME activities that are offered to diplomates by related societies. The ABS will continue to require Category-1 CME as part of ABS Continuous Certification Program requirements, however, as diplomates transition into Continuous Certification, they will no longer be required to complete the self-assessment component.