CME REQUIREMENTS:

Physicians are still required to collect at least 100 hours of Category 1 credit in a 4 year period to maintain licensure. Although the Medical Board of California does not require your CME to be in your specialty, most hospitals and specialty organizations do.

Pain Management & End of Life
All physicians, with the exception of Pathologists and Radiologists, have to collect a total of 12 hours of CME on the topics of "Pain Management" and the "Treatment of Terminally Ill & Dying Patients". You can get 4 hrs. on pain and 8 on terminally ill, or 11 on pain and 1 on terminally ill, or any other combination of the two. This is not an ongoing requirement but a one-time requirement. The deadline is 12/31/06. If you find you are short of hours, go to google.com and type in "pain management CME" and you will find multiple resources. Here are some online ways to get the hours you need:

Pain Management Symposium
AMA: Pain Management
Pain CME Programs

Geriatric CME
All general internists and family physicians who have a patient population of which over 25% are 65 years of age or older, shall complete at least 20 percent of all mandatory CME hours in a course in the field of geriatric medicine or the care of older patients. That translates to mean that physicians need about 5 hours a year on topics relating mostly to geriatrics. This, unlike the pain management/terminally ill CME requirement, is not a one-time requirement, but an ongoing requirement.

Radiology Fluoroscopy CME
Physicians who have fluoroscopy licenses are required to earn 10 approved credits to renew a certificate or permit every two years.

Did you know...
If you send your CME hours to IMQ each year, if you are audited by Medical Board of Calif. IMQ handles your audit for you? Fee to send CME to IMQ is
Member-$29, and non-member-$49.00.

WAYS TO GET CME CREDIT:

GSH Subscriptions
Good Samaritan Hospital has a number of medical journal and database subscriptions that offer free CME credits from hospital networked computers.

Archives of Internal Medicine
Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
Cleveland Clinic of Medicine
JAMA
New England Journal of Medicine

MDConsult* database: Click on the CME tab (the first five conferences submitted are free, or doctors can sign up for 50 hours of credit for $125.) Free CME credits in MDConsult are also found by clicking the "Current Practice" tab, then click on "Clinical Insights", then "Clinical Corner-stone and Free CME". See what topics are on offer and also check the "Clinical Cornerstone and Free CME Archive".
* register for offsite access.

Micromedex database: Click on the "Training Center" tab at the bottom of the page. Then click on "Current Concepts® CE Program" for a list of what's available.

Member Association CME
Remember that a number of CME opportunities can be accessed through member association websites.

American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
American College of Emergency Physicians
American Medical Association
American Pharmacist's Association
California Medical Association

Other CME Links
Medscape CME
Physician's Weekly
Audio-Digest Foundation
CME Web

Questions?
Contact Judy Hyle at 213.977-2331 or you can email her at cme@goodsam.org
Andrea Harrow, MLS, is also available at 213.977-2323 or library@goodsam.org