Chair: Arthur Frank                                                                      Staff: Ginger Anderson

In March, the Committee submitted a response to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) call for comments on its proposed new Validation of CME Content policy. In summary, the Committee’s stance was expressed as supporting ACCME’s notion that CME content should be scientifically based, valid, and relevant to the practice of medicine but asserting that ACPM and, it believes most other providers, already have measures in place to validate CME content and that compliance with the proposed policy would require an unreasonable amount of resources. For access to the proposed policy and the CME Committee’s response, contact Ginger Anderson. The outcome has not yet been announced by ACCME.

ACPM will undergo review for reaccreditation by ACCME beginning in November with the submission of ACPM’s Self Study, a comprehensive description and self-evaluation of its CME Program. Staff has begun preparation of the Self Study, a process that will involve the Committee in several rounds of review and comment. The reaccreditation process will continue in January 2003 with a visit by ACPM Staff and Arthur Frank, CME Committee Chair, to the ACCME office in Chicago. The process will conclude in March 2003 with the ACCME’s decision.

At the time of this report, registration for the August Review Course was up 57% in comparison with the 2001 Course. Though final numbers are not expected to be dramatically higher than last year’s, this may be evidence of promotional efforts beginning earlier this year. Five of the eighteen faculty members are new to the course this year.

Joint Sponsorship

ACPM provided CME Credit for physicians who attended American Medical Athletic Association (AMAA) 30^th Annual Sports Medicine Symposium at the Boston Marathon in April. The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Annual 2002 conference, Working in a Changed World: Strengthening Public Health Preparedness, will take place in New Orleans, LA July 10–12. The Committee is currently reviewing the joint sponsorship application for the annual meeting of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), Public Health: The Challenge Continues, scheduled for September 10–12 in Nashville, TN.

The on-line module ACPM has worked with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create on the physician’s role in automobile injury control will be unveiled in August.

Patricia Meinhardt, an ACPM member, has developed, with funding from the American Water Works Association (AWWA), a physician on-line reference guide, Recognizing Waterborne Disease and the Health Effects of Water Pollution. The resource is accessible through ACPM’s Web site and CME Credit is expected to be available through the College beginning during the month of July.

Dr. Meinhardt’s module, as well as all of ACPM’s other Web-based CME offerings on environmental topics, will be featured in the On-line Environmental Health Education Resource Center being developed under the ATSDR Cooperative Agreement. In addition to being a source of CME, the Resource Center will serve as a portal for ACPM members and other physicians to updates in environmental health research, slide shows, press releases, and links to ATSDR and its cooperative agreement partner organizations and other environmental health education and training resources.

During the June 13 meeting of the ATSDR Environmental Health Education Advisory Committee, a minor organizational change was announced. Since one of its most important purposes is CME, the Advisory Committee will report to the CME Committee, an arrangement that incorporates the Advisory Committee in ACPM’s organizational structure and allows its work to be reported to the Board.