Continuing medical education and Arthroplasty Today

The most effective continuing medical education (CME) is that which is highly relevant to your work life, and achieves the goal of maintaining competence and improving your practice. As arthroplasty specialists, American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) members have some unique opportunities for CME compared with our other orthopedic colleagues. Our annual fall and spring meetings are engaging and present compelling, practice-based content that keeps members up-to-date with arthroplasty topics. AAHKS offers webinars that review topics like “Coding and billing: tips and tricks to enhance your practice,” a recent offering from our association. In addition to AAHKS opportunities, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons offers specialty tests like “Adult Reconstructive Surgery of the Hip and Knee Scored and Recorded Self-Assessment Examination 2019,” edited by AAHKS fellow Michael J. Taunton, MD.

CME is a mandatory component of recertification for the American Board of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American Osteopathic Board of Orthopedic Surgery, as well as the credentialing process of our advanced practice provider colleagues. For example, the American Board of Orthopedic Surgeons requires 240 CME credits in its 10-year maintenance of certification cycle, of which 40 credits must be from self-assessment examinations.

This year Arthroplasty Today started a program to offer CME credits for reading an “Original research” or “Systematic review” manuscript (picked by our CME committee) and taking a brief test on our website. One hour of CME credit is earned for reading a selected paper and scoring 80% or better on test responses. Our CME software program keeps track of credits and allows members to print a CME transcript. Deputy editor Gregory Golladay, MD and Associate editor Thomas Blumenfield, MD worked with Sigita Wolfe, AAHKS Director of Education and Research, as well as Denise Smith Rodd, AAHKS Manager of Communications and Web Content, to make this member request a reality and to offer educational benefits to our readers.

Our plan is to continue to offer this opportunity to our readership, and perhaps even expand the program in the future. Stay tuned, and please try out our CME program on the ArthroplastyToday.org website under the “CME” tab.