Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) members should act now so they do not lose earned continuing medical education (CME) credits.
The American Board of Surgery (ABS) has changed its processes for CME credits, which affects their upload as well as meeting certification requirements. It also requires that, after July 1, members provide certain information in order for the SVS to transfer credits earned from SVS activities to the ABS.
To be sure existing credits have transferred correctly, members are asked to confirm the credits by April 1, says Lisa Cohen, SVS director of education.
Beginning July 1, all CME credits will be automatically transferred to the ABS through the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS). On that same date, ABS will retire its manual reporting feature, which permits individuals to self-claim their CME credits directly with the ABS.
While the SVS is committed to making the process as seamless as possible, SVS is still aligning its systems to meet the new requirements.
The SVS has established a process for moving credits, with a timeline established for manual transfers. Detailed information, including critical steps in the process, as well as guidance, is available at vascular.org/NewCreditProcess.
“As this is an evolving process, SVS will post the timing of credit transfers to ABS on the web page for each activity,” adds Cohen. “If credits are missing, contact [email protected] as soon as possible so staff can resolve issues before the June 30 deadline. Confirm credits at vascular.org/ABSCreditSite.”
