ACCME Mission Statement

AANI CME Mission Statement

Accrediting Body

American Academy of Neurology Institute (AANI) is approved by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Continuing Medical Education Program (CME) Purpose

The purpose of the AANI CME Program is to support the AAN/AANI’s commitment “to promote the highest-quality patient centered neurologic care.” This goal is accomplished by producing high quality education, science, and practice programming that increases knowledge, competence, and/or performance of physicians and the interdisciplinary neurologic care team.

Content Areas

Content areas for the AANI’s CME Program include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Clinical: Prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of neurologic diseases/disorders
• Research: Basic, clinical, and translational
• Practice: Patient safety, quality/performance improvement, coding/reimbursement
• Business and Leadership Skills
• Communication and Teaching Skills
• Advocacy
• Health Disparities

Competencies

All activities must be developed in the context of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Core Competencies. All activities must map back to at least one competency.

• Patient care
• Medical knowledge
• Practice-based learning and improvement 
• Ethics and professionalism
• Systems-based medicine
• Interpersonal and communication skills

Content Validation

All AAN activities must be planned in accordance with the ACCME policy on “Ensuring Content is Valid.” Per the ACCME, the AANI, as an accredited provider, is responsible for ensuring:

• AANI education is fair and balanced and that any clinical content presented supports safe, effective patient care.
• All recommendations for patient care must be based on current science, evidence, and clinical reasoning while giving a fair and balanced view of diagnostic and therapeutic options.
• All scientific research referred to, reported, or used in accredited education in support or justification of a patient care recommendation must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
• Although accredited continuing education is an appropriate place to discuss, debate, and explore new and evolving topics, these areas need to be clearly identified as such within the program and individual presentations. It is the responsibility of the AANI to facilitate engagement with these topics without advocating for, or promoting, practices that are not, or not yet, adequately based on current science, evidence, and clinical reasoning.

AMA Definition of CME

All AAN activities must meet the AMA’s definition of CME: The educational activities that serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession. CME represents that body of knowledge and skills generally recognized and accepted by the profession as within the basic medical sciences, the discipline of clinical medicine, and the provision of health care to the public.

Target Audience

The AANI is one of the primary providers of CME in neurology. CME content is designed to address professional practice gaps of neurologists, neuroscience professionals, and the interdisciplinary neurology care team (e.g., advance practice providers, neuroscience nurses, etc.).

In support of the AANI’s “Learning Across Your Lifetime” education structure and commitment to medical education, medical students and residents are included at its CME activities.

Types of Activities

Types of activities include, but are not limited to:

• Live activities (in-person or remote—national and regional conferences, webinars)
• Enduring materials (print, audio, video, internet, web-based, webinars)
• Journal-based CME (peer-reviewed professional journal)
• Joint Providership with eligible companies only that help the AANI to meet their CME Mission

Within each of the types of activities, a variety formats are employed (e.g., case studies, didactic, audience response, demonstration/skills workshop, discussion, panels, role playing, simulation, formative assessment, summative assessment, self-assessment, blended learning, platform session, plenary session)

Expected Results

The AANI strives to foster continuing professional development of neurologists and the neurology care team based on valid and independent content that is relevant to their practice and contributes to improvements in their medical knowledge, strategies, competence, and coordination.

Evaluation/Improvement

The AANI is committed to ongoing evaluation and improvement of its CME activities and overall program.