AAFP to replace “2-for-1” CME credit program with outcomes-based credit program

AAFP will end its popular 2-for-1 Evidence-Based Continuing Medical Education credit program at the end of the 2010 calendar year after nearly a decade in practice, the Academy has announced. The decision was adopted by the AAFP Board of Directors in April 2009 following a recommendation by the Commission on Continuing Professional Development, and will go into effect Jan. 1, 2011. The 2-for-1 EB CME program began in 2002 when the Academy created the original standards for classifying clinical content.

According to an AAFP News Now article, the EB CME program is ending because it has accomplished its operating mission—incorporating principles of evidence-based medicine and improving medical practice and patient outcomes.

In its place, AAFP will launch a new program called Transition to Practice, which will allow participants to earn double credit for AAFP Prescribed CME credit. In the current EB CME program, physicians could simply attend education programs and receive 2-for-1 credit; in Transition to Practice, they must illustrate how they applied their knowledge to gain the additional credit. Showing outcomes data is now a regular way of practice, rather than the exception, said AAFP Commission on Continuing Professional Development Chair Mark Stephens, M.D., of Bethesda, Md., in the ANN article.

“I don’t think this will make a significant change with how physicians get the required prescribed credits,” says TAFP Director of Education Anna Jenkins. “After the program ends, in order to receive the total credit required, it may be possible that some have to attend more educational programs approved for prescribed credit.”

After this year, physicians can still receive the required single credits they need each year by attending TAFP’s CME programs, including the four annual symposia: the C. Frank Webber Lectureship, Annual Session & Scientific Assembly, Primary Care Summit – Houston, and Primary Care Summit – Dallas/Fort Worth.

“TAFP will continue to work with our faculty to provide quality CME that is evidence-based,” Jenkins says.

For more information, read the AAFP News Now article about Translation to Practice on AAFP’s website, www.aafp.org.

By Melissa Ayala, TAFP publications intern - Fall 2010