Do you have a new idea for an educational activity or would you like to start to offer Continuing Education Credit for an educational activity through the UCSF Office of CME?

New Inquiry Questionnaire

Before you Begin

The UCSF Office of CME is accepting first-time Requests to accredit Regularly Scheduled Series (RSS) only.

New RSS requests must be submitted with sufficient time for preliminary screening and review so that the credit request is submitted before the credit request submission deadline. Inquiries not cleared via preliminary screening before the first-time credit request submission deadline must either move the start date forward or proceed without accreditation (e.g. may not award continuing education credit.)

The submission deadline for a firs-time RSS credit request is 4 months before the start date.

Use this form to submit your idea or first-time inquiry about offering credit through the UCSF Office of CME for a RSS activity. Since this form cannot be saved, i.e., must be filled out in one sitting, you may want to acquire the questions you'll need to answer and discuss them with your planners first.

To Acquire the questions you'll need to answer, please use this form:

To create a form with showing the questions you'll need to answer, fill out the form to the best of your knowledge using the the Title "Copy Questions only". This is the only way

Please remember, the Office of CME requires:

at least least one of the educational Program Directors to be affiliated with UCSF

at least one non-conflicted planner who is a subject matter expert and will mitigate conflict of interest by peer-reviewing clinical presentations in advance of the program.

a permanent Administrator who can be a point of contact and complete required CE Trainings prior to submission of the full Credit Request application. This person will be expected to manage operations in a manner compliant with Continuing Education (CE) standards.

if your program is interprofessional in nature, you must answer additional questions in order to comply with interprofessional planning credit-standards.

**IMPORTANT: Regardless of anticipated program size, the Office of CME is NOT currently considering programs which need to hire an Office of CME Event Planner.

**IMPORTANT: Requests for 3rd party accreditation, education influenced by Medical Education Communications Companies (MECCs), and companies that are commercial in nature, I.e., who market, distribute or sell products used by or on patients, preclude your eligibility to move forward in the request process.

**Program Title*

Please Tell Us About Yourself

Your name (you will be the Contact person for the Office of CME):*

Your email Address (you may also include additional email addresses separated by a comma):*

What type of license or certificate do you hold? (Examples: MD, RN, DDs, NP, PA, LCSW, LMFT, SLP)*

NOTE: If you do not hold a professional certificate or license related to the educational program, please type "N/A".

What is your role in the Activity:*

Please note: Do not indicate the Collaborator role if you are either the Program Director or the Administrative Contact.
Please note: permanent Administrator will be required in the full Credit Request Application.

Program Director: Leads content development. Responsible compliance with credit standards and planning timeline.

Co-Director: Assists Program Director.

Administrative Contact: Responsible for operational and administrative support. Office of CME trains, supports, and reaches out to this person.

Other Administrator: Assists Administrative Contact.

Planning Committee Member: Designs, reviews, approves, or advocates for content.

Please select your SOM department:*

Select

Please select your clinical area:*

Select

Please select your focus within the SOP:*

Select

Please tell us which UCSF Center for Excellence you work with:

Please tell us the name of your affiliated organization:*

Select the best item below which describe your (affiliated) organization:*

***You will automatically be denied approval to move forward when

you make a 3rd party request (i.e., your program must have at least one key Planner affiliated with UCSF)
any content could be influenced by a Medical Education Communications Company (MEC).

Non-profit/not-for-profit

Governmental

insurance carrier

Health care system/hospital

Healthcare professions school such as a Medical school.

Medical Education Communications Company (MECC)

An organization that is commercial in nature, i.e., that markets, distributes, or sells products used by or on patients.

None of the above

Describe what kind of "other" affiliated organization you represent:*

***You will automatically be denied approval to move forward when

any content could be influenced by a Medical Education Communications Company (MEC).
any content could be influenced by companies who are commercial in nature (i.e., who market, sell, or distribute healthcare products used by or on patients.

Please tell us the name of your external (NOT affiliated with UCSF) organization whom you represent:*

Select the best item below to describe your organization. (Check all that apply):*

***You will automatically be denied approval to move forward when

you make a 3rd party request (i.e., your program must have at least one key Planner affiliated with UCSF)
any content could be influenced by a Medical Education Communications Company (MECC).

Non-profit/not-for-profit

Governmental

insurance carrier

Health care system/hospital

Healthcare professions school such as a Medical school.

Medical Education Communications Company (MECC)

An organization that is commercial in nature, i.e., that markets, distributes, or sells products used by or on patients.

None of the above

Describe what "other" kind of non-affiliated organization you represent:*

***You will automatically be denied approval to move forward when

any content could be influenced by a Medical Education Communications Company (MECC).
any content could be influenced by companies who are commercial in nature (i.e., who market, sell, or distribute healthcare products used by or on patients

Tell Us About Your Program

The UCSF Office of CME has limited resources and is committed to only allowing strategic and/or valuable educational programs to be accredited. In light of this, please explain why you want to offer this course:*

The Office of CME is accredited to provide Interprofessional Continuing Education Credit

Because most health care is provided by an interprofessional team, we encourage you to consider if your educational activity should be an educational activity designed for learning that enhances interprofessional teamwork.

In the full Credit Request:

Education by the Team For the Team

Tip! Plan to describe how professions will have the opportunity to learn from one another.
Tip! Plan to identify in what way team practices fall short of ideal practice and cite literature or data to show your program plans to teach evidence-based knowledge AND skills and/or strategies for team improvement.

Education for Individuals

Tip! Plan to describe how the actual practices of individual providers fall short of ideal practices.
Tip! Plan to identify in what way individual practices fall short of ideal practice and share cite literature or data to show your program plans to teach evidence-based knowledge AND skills and/or strategies.

NOTE: Your answer choices below will help the Office of CME determine the Activity Type, the interprofessional nature of your plans, and next steps.

Please check items which are TRUE, i.e., which reflect an accurate statement about your program at this time (Please check all that apply):*

This educational program is best for individual learners only.

We are not certain of every type of credit we would like our program to offer.

We will offer credit to learners external to UCSF.

Some of our program is designed to improve not only individual providers, but also offers learning by and for the team.

What is your desired start date?*

If you don't know the exact start date, please put the first day of the month you think you are most likely to begin. The start date may be updated after submission by your assigned Office of CME Contact.

What number of learners do expect to participate in the program?*

Please note:

Regardless of anticipated program size, the Office of CME is NOT currently considering programs which need to hire an Office of CME Event Planner.

Activity Type(s)

The American Medical Association (AMA) defines Continuing Education (CE) Activity Types. An Activity Type for every accredited program must be identified.

ACTIVITY TYPE DESCRIPTIONS

Live Activity - provides direct interaction between course faculty and learners in real time. May include lectures, symposia, live teleconferences, or workshops.
Regularly Scheduled Series (RSS) have regular duration and frequency, are continuous in nature, are for the purpose of faculty development, do not have registration fees, and don't market nor grant credit to audiences external to UCSF. Examples of RSS include Grand Rounds and Tumor Boards.
Enduring Material - AKA "Home Study" or "On Demand" learning. These have, static content such as recordings or written articles, monographs, or data.
Hybrid Live + Enduring - programs which have required live and enduring material components.
Other - The Office of CME is open to considering new learning formats. Please describe why and how your program is different from all the Activity Types described above.

IMPORTANT: If you have more than one Activity Type in your program, you may be required to submit multiple Credit Request applications.

Please briefly describe the formats of education (i.e., face-to-face, podcast, blog, asynchronous internet-based activity) that comprise the Activities in your Program:

NOTE: If you program includes multiple Activities, you may be required to submit multiple Credit Requests.

Tell us About Your Planning Committee

Tip! Ask potential planners about their relationships upon invitation.

At least one planning committee member must have NO financial relationship with any companies who market, sell, or distribute products used on or by patents. This planner will need to mitigate conflicts of interest as part of their planning role.

To learn about requirements for planners and course faculty: [Link to be imbedded when a page with our current policies and planner and course faculty requirements is available]

Below, please indicate all roles that planning committee members have who are affiliated with an organization external to UCSF:*

At least one individual from an organization external to UCSF will help to select or invite speakers, develop educational content, review content, develop or design the curriculum.

At least one individual from an organization external to UCSF will provide pre-developed content that was selected by UCSF planners.

Any/all individuals from organizations external to UCSF have roles limited to managing site logistics, contracts, streaming, or other administrative functions and have no control or influence over any content in the program.

My planning committee has no planners representing organizations external to UCSF

Please select all true descriptors for the external organization(s) represented by your Planners:*

***Reminder: you will automatically be denied approval to move forward when

you make a 3rd party request (i.e., your program must have at least one key Planner affiliated with UCSF)
any content could be influenced by a Medical Education Communications Company (MECC).
you want to develop education with companies who are commercial in nature.

is/are commercial in nature, i.e., which focuses on marketing, distributing, or selling products used on or by patients.

is/are commercial in nature (as defined above) but do/does NOT pertain to healthcare

is/are academic institution(s)

Medical Education Communications Company (MECC)

Other

Please tell us the name(s) of all "other" organizations represented on your planning committee which are external to UCSF:

Please indicate what types of UCSF-affiliated organizations are represented on your planning committee:*

NOTE: UCSF will NOT accredit education where a representative of a Medical Education Communiations Company (MECC) or a company which is commercial in nature is on the planning committee or is in a position to control any content of the education.

An Accredited Provider

A Medical Education Communications Company (MECC)

Other, including Non-profit/Not-for-profit, governmental, insurance carrier, health care system/hospital, healthcare professions school such as a medical school.

N/A - I am the only planner

Which areas in the School of Pharmacy are represented?*

Organized Research Unit

Bioengineering and Therapeutic Science Dept.

Clinical Pharmacy Dept.

Pharmaceutical Chemistry Dept.

Please tell us the name(s) of all "other" organizations affiliated with UCSF which represented on your planning committee:*

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THIS PRELIMINARY INQUIRY

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PLEASE IMMEDIATEY SHARE NEXT STEPS BELOW WITH YOUR PLANNING COMMITTEE:

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Take steps early on to ensure a successful and smooth approval process. If you are requesting accreditation through the UCSF Office of CME for the first time:

Consider attending with any/all administrators who will support your course, the monthly CE Training workshops. OCME offers "Credit standards", "How to Write an Excellent Credit Request"; and "How to Use the CE Portal". You can reach out to request an invitation when you are ready to attend.

Plan a start date far enough in advance, more than 9 months is recommended for live activities and more than 4 months is recommended for RSS and enduring material activities. This is to give you enough time to both a) prepare submit the New Idea & First-Time Request form and receive approval; and then b) complete and submit a full-Credit-Request application no later than the 9 and 4 month deadline, respectively. (Office of CME does not guarantee approval in time for programs who submit later than this)

For live activities with a registration process, prepare a budget with your best-guess projections and base be strategic with registration fees so that you can break even or generate a small profit.

Think about advertising a Save-The-Date early on. (You don’t have to say anything about offering credit at this time).

Ensure the planning committee is clear from the outset about how the education should change the practice and/or behavior of the ideal learner and/or the ideal healthcare team.

Make sure you have a least one planner who has no financial conflicts of interest with any content in the Activity. (This person will need to mitigate conflicts of interest if the education applies to be accredited.)

Take steps to ensure your planning committee is comprised of members whose professions reflect those of your learners; UC or affiliated planners are required (we do not certify third-party events)

Consider whether the education is appropriate for

team-based learning
how you might incorporate the principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in your content
any elements of cultural and linguistic competency
education on the forefront of Artificial Intelligence

Be clear about how the education from your program will ideally change practice and/or behavior of the ideal learner or team.

Identify evidence in literature or data that suggests that ideal practice is different actual practice. Examples include literature citations, variable patient outcomes, guideline adherence, and evidence-based best practices in publications.

Prepare any important messages you want your faculty to be advised of, and then get your speakers and topics in place so that you can submit a complete schedule of speakers and topics of your live program at least 9 months in advance of the program start date for credit and for your Regularly Scheduled Series (RSS) at least 4 months in advance of the program start date for credit.

Consider the venue and its cost and be sure it is booked before you advertise.

Be sure you can plan the Activity without an Office of CME Event Planner. (Our planners’ availability is limited at this time.)

HELPFUL LINKS:

Joint Accreditation Program
New Inquiry Questionnaire Status (coming in July 2024)
Credit request status dashboard
Administrator Resources

***IMPORTANT: Steps above are intended to help organize your planning process regardless of whether the education is ultimately permitted to award credit and is not a guarantee that the UCSF Office of CME will agree to support your program for credit. Please hold questions until we have had 2 weeks to respond to your submitted New Inquiry Questionnaire form.

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