Continuing Medical Education (CME)

All diplomates participating in Maintenance of Certification (MOC) must obtain an average of 30 Category 1 CME credits per year from an Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) approved organization as of the date of certification and throughout the 10 year MOC cycle. Three CME credits in ethics must be earned once per MOC cycle; at least 80 percent of the Category I CME credits must be relevant to the practice of ophthalmology; and the remainder of the CME credit hours can be in general medicine.

Diplomates may submit earned CME credit at any time via the CME Tracking Tool located within the Online Services Center. To log a course into the tracking system, the information must include: course name, sponsor, location, dates and number of credits earned for each course completed. The CME tracking tool will automatically calculate and store this information.

Diplomates are also permitted to submit CME information via fax or email. Credits must be submitted as a spreadsheet in chronological order and contain the: course name, sponsor, location, dates and credits earned for each course completed.

To qualify, you must submit a total of 30 credits multiplied by the year you are registering for the DOCK (you must also have completed your three CME credits in ethics.) For example, if you register for the DOCK in your eighth year of certification: 8 X 30 = 240. If you submit 240 CME prior to the June 1 DOCK registration deadline, you will have met the CME requirements and you will owe no additional CME towards MOC. Submissions will be reviewed after the June 1 DOCK registration deadline and the CME balance for those who meet this option will be adjusted to reflect 0 CME owed. Any submission received after the DOCK registration date, will be subject to the rules below.

If you submit CME credits AFTER registering for the DOCK, you must submit a total of 300 CME (including three ethics CME) prior to the December 31 expiration of your current certificate. Non time-limited certificate holders and former time-limited certificate holders must submit a total of 300 CME (including three ethics CME) by the December 31 expiration date of their current application

Ethics CME Requirement
All diplomates participating in MOC must obtain a total of three CME credits in ethics once during the 10-year cycle. Ethics courses can be found through various institutions; such as bioethics departments of many universities, community hospitals and medical centers. The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) also has an active ethics program which offers courses at its annual meeting and has on-line ethics courses.

The Board’s ethics requirement is designed to encourage ophthalmologists to recognize and resolve the ethical dilemmas that arise which directly impact patient care. The Board does not accept risk management or medico legal courses as ethics courses. While there are no specific guidelines regarding courses that will satisfy the ethics requirement, the course should contain the word ethics in the title or be designated as ethics by the sponsoring organization. Please note, even if an ACCME-sponsored organization designates a specific course as ethics, the Board reserves the right to accept or reject any course submitted as ethics based on course content.

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