The MEDNAX Center for Research, Education and Quality (CREQ) has received its third consecutive Accreditation with Commendation from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). ACCME relies on a voluntary regulatory process of self-reporting to complete a vigorous and thorough internal review of each organization’s continuing medical education programs. This ensures a consistent commitment to the highest standards of lifelong professional development available to clinicians.

From 2010 to 2015, MEDNAX offered over 300,000 continuing medical education (CME) credits, contributing to the educational advancement of more than 53,000 physicians, as well as 50,000 in other clinical disciplines. In 2016, MEDNAX offered nearly 20,000 CME credits and nearly 8,000 Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) contact hours to more than 700 physicians and nearly 500 advanced practitioners.

The learning experiences

Through CREQ, MEDNAX provides a combination of web-based materials and live-meeting environments. Pediatrix University is CREQ’s online education hub, which houses access to clinical data and research, quality improvement projects, news and journals. A central part of MEDNAX’s commitment to education is its conferences, which are MEDNAX’s opportunity to be thought leaders in innovative medical knowledge, attracting health care providers through all stages of their careers.  The conferences include:

• NEO: The Conference for Neonatology is a premier neonatology meeting, which began a decade ago as a revamp of the 27-year-old Tiny Baby Conference. NEO features world-renowned speakers who discuss critical and controversial issues in the field of newborn medicine. The NEO Conference also utilizes real-time Spanish translation, which has broadened the NEO reach to an international audience.

• Specialty Review in Neonatology, held concurrently with NEO, is an intensive and comprehensive trailblazer in neonatal medicine board certification review. Master educators lead participates through a foundational examination, with a focus on pathophysiology and problem-based application for conference attendees that range from fellows to experienced practitioners.

• Steamboat Perinatal Conference is a meeting in its 32nd year that centers on current and controversial topics in perinatal medicine. Although the conference is designed around a formal schedule, Steamboat always becomes a collaborative discussion among speakers and attendees.

• Innovations in Neonatal Care focuses each year on a comprehensive examination of a neonatal subspecialty.

• Progress in Perinatal Cardiology is a brand new conference that brings together the fields of perinatology and pediatric cardiology to highlight the essential collaboration of these fields for mothers and babies through all stages of the perinatal cardiac care.

• Practical Radiology 2017: Core Topics in Emergency Radiology is a brand new conference for MEDNAX that highlights the latest advances and trends in emergency and trauma radiologic diagnosis.

• OB Challenges, formally known as Obstetrical Challenges, is in its 34th year, and concentrations on achievements, strategies, research and advancements in perinatal medicine. This year’s theme is Improving Fetal and Neonatal Outcomes. A unique element of OB Challenges is its faculty, which is a combination of fellows and advanced practitioners.

The team

Hilja Dodd Sousa Conceição, MEDNAX’s CME Manager, oversaw the ACCME self-reporting process. “This required generating a lengthy self-study report of the structure and activities of the program, a performance in practice review audit and navigating through a detailed five-month review by ACCME surveyors and the Accreditation Review Committee,” said Dr. Jorge Del Toro, MEDNAX’s Vice President of Clinical Education & Medical Affairs.

Dr. Del Toro also recognized the contributions of Dr. Alan Spitzer (retired) and Dr. Reese Clark, who were specifically involved in the comprehensive ACCME interview. Janice Abreu, Administrative Assistant; Cindy Chiapetta, Program Coordinator; Jaime Mejias, Clinical Education Program Coordinator; Janet Samuel, Meeting Planner; Mel Pepper, Director of Professional Nursing Education; and Susan Reinarz, Associate Nursing Educator, provide essential continuing education team support and leadership.

About ACCME

According to its website, ACCME is dedicated to keeping CME activities “independent, free from commercial bias, based on valid content, and effective in meeting physicians’ learning and practice needs. The ACCME accreditation process is of, by and for the profession of medicine.” The standard accreditation period lasts four years.

ACCME member organizations include the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and the Federation of State Medical Boards of the US, Inc.