AAPM is accredited by ACCME to provide continuing medical education to physicians.
In its last survey by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), AAPM was awarded Accreditation with Commendation for a term of 6 years (through November 2023) as a provider of continuing medical education for physicians. The 6-year accreditation is the highest accreditation awarded by the ACCME.
The ACCME rewards providers that participate as strategic partners in quality initiatives within their institution, health system, or community through collaborative alliances; implement educational strategies to remove, overcome or address barriers to physician change; and integrate CME into the process for improving professional practice. Providers who achieve Accreditation with Commendation have demonstrated compliance with specific Accreditation Criteria to achieve commendation.
ACCME’s goal is to encourage and reward accredited CME providers like AAPM for implementing best practices in pedagogy, engagement, evaluation, and change management, and for focusing on generating meaningful outcomes.
AAPM has been recognized by ACCME for its achievements which advance interprofessional collaborative practice, address public health priorities, create behavioral change, show leadership, leverage educational technology, and demonstrate the impact of education on healthcare professionals and patients.
Continuing Medical Education (CME) Mission Statement
Purpose
The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) CME program is designed to assess needs, plan, and implement educational activities for physicians who seek to provide quality health care to patients suffering from acute and chronic pain. Through these activities, AAPM will enhance physicians’ knowledge, competence, and performance in the field of Pain Medicine.
Content Areas
The content covered by the AAPM CME program reflects the multidisciplinary scope of the field, which includes a broad scope of specialties which may include anesthesiology, internal medicine, neurology, neurological surgery, orthopedic surgery, physiatry, psychiatry, and psychology. Among the topics addressed are the study of pain, prevention of pain, and the evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation of persons in pain. Some conditions may manifest themselves as pain and associated symptoms arising from a discrete cause, such as postoperative pain or pain associated with a malignancy; others might have conditions in which pain constitutes the primary problem, such as neuropathic pain or headaches. The evaluation of painful syndromes includes interpretation of historical data; review of previous laboratory, imaging, and electrodiagnostic studies; assessment of behavioral, social, occupational and avocational issues; evaluation of the patient by the pain specialist. It may require specialized diagnostic procedures, including central and peripheral neural blocks or monitored drug infusions. As endorsed by the US National Pain Strategy of 2016, Integrative/complementary medicine techniques such as acupuncture, hypnosis, mindfulness-based-stress-reduction, and Tai Chi, to name a few, should be an increasingly routine component of acute and chronic pain treatment plans. The unique needs of patients-including cultural contexts-are always considered when formulating a comprehensive treatment plan.
Target Audience
The AAPM CME program is designed for a diverse audience of physicians whose diverse scope of practice may include but is not limited to primary care, pediatrics, geriatrics, oncology, and others and is targeted to the multidisciplinary practice of Pain Medicine. The CME Program is further designed for a secondary audience of physicians interested in improving their knowledge, competence, and performance in the treatment of common pain disorders. AAPM also provides educational programs directed toward the non-physician healthcare clinician who is part of the multidisciplinary pain management team.
Types of Activities
The AAPM CME program includes the following activities, all directly provided:
- Courses:
- Annual Meeting and Related Pre-conference Activities: on-demand access to webinars focused on a variety of clinical and practice management topics relevant to Pain Medicine. Formats used include live lectures, symposia, hands-on and simulation workshops, expert panel discussions, and scientific research poster presentations.
- Essential Tools for Treating the Patient in Pain™ Course: blended with learning opportunities at the Annual Meeting, it provides an overview of the fundamentals of Pain Medicine as well as best practices and practical approaches to the treatment of common pain disorders.
- Internet Enduring Materials: on-demand access to webinars focused on a variety of clinical and practice management topics relevant to Pain Medicine.
- Internet Live Courses: live webinars offered as needed to address timely clinical topics in Pain Medicine.
- Manuscript Review: regular engagement of learners in the pre-publication review of manuscripts for the AAPM peer-reviewed indexed journal, Pain Medicine.
Expected Results
The AAPM CME program is designed to enhance physicians’ knowledge, competence, and performance related to Pain Medicine. It is expected that as a result of their participation, AAPM learners will:
- Describe the fundamental concepts and complexity of pain, including the multidimensional nature of pain, how it is observed, assessed and reassessed after treatment, multidisciplinary approaches to treatment, and applicable tools for mitigating risks, assessing and managing the medico-legal aspects of pain medicine; (knowledge change)
- Identify major health care trends, and discuss their impact on the specialty practice of Pain Medicine; (knowledge change)
- Develop or enhance the skills and strategies necessary to optimize the health of patients in pain and to support the elimination of the major public health problem of incomplete assessment, treatment, and reassessment of pain and to decrease the burden of chronic pain as a major public health problem; (competence change)
- Analyze and overcome barriers to the management of acute, chronic, and cancer pain conditions, including reducing disparities in access to quality pain care across the health care continuum, and reducing unintentional consequences (misuse, abuse, and diversion issues) related to the use of opioid analgesics in the treatment of chronic pain; (competence and performance change)
- Implement optimal clinical assessment and risk management strategies, evidence-based treatment protocols, and a patient-centered approach to improve the treatment of patients of all ages with various pain conditions; (performance change)
- Apply evidence-based integrative and interventional pain techniques to reduce costs, improve efficacy, and leverage outcome-tracking tools; (performance change)
Ongoing assessment of these expected results is achieved through the evaluation of individual CME activities. These data are then aggregated to improve future educational interventions, to assess the impact of the overall CME program, and to measure the extent to which the CME mission has been met.
AAPM Educational Planning Policy
It is the policy of AAPM to plan and implement educational activities in accordance with the ACCME to ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor. As an ACCME-accredited provider, AAPM may receive commercial support from industry but does not receive guidance, either nuanced or direct, on the content of the activity or on who should deliver the content. All program faculty and planners are required to disclose all financial relationships they may have or have had within the last 12 months with commercial interests whose products or services are related to the subject matter of the presentation. Any real or apparent conflicts of interest must be resolved prior to the presentation. Faculty are expected to disclose this information to the audience both verbally and in print (slideshows) at the beginning of each presentation. Faculty are also required to inform program participants if any unlabeled uses of products regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be discussed.
Reviewed, updated and approved by the AAPM Professional Education & CME Oversight Committee on 12/29/2016.