APA Offers Wealth of CME Resources

APA members who are navigating the board-recertification process now have access to CME programs that provide a strong foundation for meeting Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements. APA offers CME materials for member psychiatrists who are preparing for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) recertification exam or are creating a program for lifelong learning and self-assessment.

Online courses encompassing 10 of the APA practice guidelines have recently become available to members free of charge. The most current courses include the “Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Schizophrenia, Second Edition,” “Practice Guideline for the Assessment and Treatment of Patients With Suicidal Behaviors,” and, just released in November, “Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients With Acute Stress Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.”

The number of CME credits for online courses ranges from three to five. Upon submission of the course quiz, the learner can automatically generate a CME certificate. These courses, free for members, may be found on APA's CME Web site at<www.psych.org/cme>.

Also on the CME Web site, a CME recorder has been established for every member to serve as a tool for tracking credit earned through educational activities. Credit for courses completed on the CME site automatically“ rolls over” into the member's CME recorder, as does credit claimed via the computerized evaluation at every APA annual meeting. The recorder also allows members to enter CME credit earned in other venues and provides the capability to print reports, which can be submitted for licensing and credentialing purposes. The CME recorder presents members with an excellent vehicle for tracking credit earned over a 10-year period. (ABPN currently mandates 300 hours of specialty-specific Category 1 AMA credit for the Physician's Recognition Award during the recertification period.)

Members can access their CME recorder by entering Members Corner on the APA homepage, selecting “Online CME” under the “Lifelong Learning” section, and clicking on “CME Recorder” at the left side of the CME Web site homepage.

Focus: The Journal for Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry, which includes an annual 100-question self-assessment exam, provides another source of self-directed learning. Over a three-year period, the journal follows the ABPN topic outline for recertification. Each issue (four a year) covers one of the topics, presenting a comprehensive review article summarizing current clinical practice on the topic, a synthesis article with expert opinion on diagnosis and treatment of the topic, an interactive patient management section, an “Ask the Expert” column, a reprint collection of influential articles on the topic with supplementary bibliography, and a quarterly CME quiz.

The Focus Self-Assessment Examination program includes an examination test booklet as a supplement to the fall issue; available upon submission of the exam are a Critique and Reference Guide, a personal score report, and performance guidelines (national norms for the aggregate group). The self-assessment exam comprises 100 multiple-choice questions developed by the Focus Editorial Board, with test development and scoring assistance from Professional Testing Inc. The test questions are based on topics covered in the current year's Focus and other materials selected from authoritative references in the field of psychiatry and are designed to review current scientific knowledge and practice in the selected area of study.

Subscribers have the option of accessing the Focus articles and exam either through the print format or online at the HighWire site, the site that hosts APA's journals. Up to five AMA Category 1 credits can be earned for completion of each issue's CME quiz and up to 20 credits for completion of the year-end self-assessment exam.

The Department of CME also is working with American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. (APPI) to certify its new online self-assessment study guides for CME credit. To date, the program includes four programs, which are accessible only on the HighWire site: “Self-Assessment in Clinical Psychiatry,”“ Self-Assessment in Forensic Psychiatry,” “Self-Assessment in Geriatric Psychiatry,” and “Self-Assessment in Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.” Each guide is designated for up to 20 Category 1 credits for the AMA's Physician's Recognition Award; a critique and reference are provided with the answer for each question.

All of these CME programs—online practice-guideline courses, the Focus journal program, and the APPI self-assessment study guides—carry significant ABPN approval language: “The ABPN has reviewed [these programs] and approved [them] as part of a comprehensive lifelong learning and self-assessment program, which is mandated by the American Board of Medical Specialties as a necessary component of maintenance of certification.”

APA anticipates development of additional CME products and updates, which will afford members more tools as they begin to create their own MOC programs.▪