Accrediting/Certifying Your Activity

More and more, patients are demanding transparent health care professionals who remain uninfluenced by marketing. When you offer an accredited/certified program, you’re guaranteeing a well-structured and unbiased learning opportunity.

Dalhousie Continuing Professional Development and Medical Education (CPDME) is an accredited provider. We can accredit/certify educational programs for CFPC Mainpro+ and/or RCPSC Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits, for physicians across the Maritime provinces.

The Accreditation/Certification Process

During the accreditation/certification process, careful review is undertaken to ensure programs are based on physicians’ needs, educationally sound, free from bias, and sufficiently interactive. Please read the below information carefully and don’t hesitate to reach out to CPDME.Accreditation@dal.ca if you have any questions.

NOTE: Programs may not be advertised as accredited (or that they’re in the process of getting accredited) before the activity is officially approved.

General Requirements

Though very similar, the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) have specific requirements and processes for accreditation/certification. Details on their respective program requirements can be found on their websites:

• CFPC Quality Criteria Framework
• RCPSC CPD Activity Toolkit

In brief, accredited programs must meet the following requirements:

• The program is developed/co-developed by a physician organization.
  
  
• There is a scientific planning committee (SPC) that is representative of the target audience. The SPC must include:
  • An active physician from each of the certifying Colleges (CFPC and/or RCPSC).
  • A physician faculty member of the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine.
     
• The principles of equity, diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility (EDIA) are taken into consideration throughout the planning and delivery of the program.
  
  
• The program adheres to the National Standard for Support of Accredited CPD Activities and the CMA Guidelines.
  
  
• A needs assessment is performed to identify the needs of the target audience.
  
  
• Learning objectives are developed according to the Colleges’ standards (for the overall program as a whole and for each individual session/activity). These learning objectives are communicated to participants in advance (e.g. in the program brochure/website and/or other handout materials).
  
  
• A variety of learning methods are used (at least 25% of the total education time must be allocated for interactive learning).
  
  
• The program activities are detailed in an agenda/schedule (showing the time allocated to interactivity).
  
• All expenses and sources of revenue are recorded in a program budget.
  
  
• Program sponsors/exhibitors are acknowledged appropriately.
  
  
• Conflicts of interest are collected and reviewed by the SPC, and disclosed to the audience (for SPC members, speakers, moderators, facilitators, and authors).
  
  
• Participants have the opportunity to evaluate the program and sessions, and this evaluation includes the required questions around bias, impact, and learning objectives.
  
  
• Attendance records are maintained for a period of 5 years, and participants are supplied with a participation certificate.

Applications

Our Accreditation Packages page has the required forms and resources to help with planning your program and starting the application. Please read our Accreditation Policy and FAQs before you get started. (They have further details around the requirements and process.) Once your application is ready, submit all the forms and supporting documents to CPDME.Accreditation@dal.ca.

Complete applications must be received by Dalhousie CPDME at least 8 weeks prior to the start date of the program to allow time to review the application and remedy any deficiencies. We reserve the right to not accredit if the time frame is too close; if we do accredit, additional fees may apply.

Fees: Effective July 1, 2024

Program Types

1.      Single-Session Events

This category includes programs/events that occur once within a calendar year (e.g., conferences, symposia, courses, research days, etc.). These programs may be seeking CFPC Mainpro+ credits and/or RCPSC Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits, and they may be multiple days in duration.

If the target audience is national in scope (i.e. includes physicians from across Canada), the program must be delivered in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Prince Edward Island, and faculty members of the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine must be actively involved in the development of the program.

After the event, we will require the attendance list and a summary/report of the completed evaluations. Our office will issue attendance certificates unless other arrangements are made.

2.      Multi-Session Events

This category includes programs that have sessions that occur multiple times (twice or more) within a calendar year (e.g., rounds, journal clubs, series, repeated courses, etc.). These programs may be seeking CFPC Mainpro+ credits and/or RCPSC Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits.

NOTE: Rounds, journal clubs, and small group programs that are only seeking RCPSC MOC credits should follow the RCPSC’s process for self-approval. There is no need to seek accreditation through our office.

The accreditation/certification period is one calendar year. We prefer that year-long programs run from September 1 - August 31 the following year, but it’s not required.

The details for all the sessions throughout the year do not need to be firmly decided before you seek accreditation/certification. In order for our office to approve the program, we will require the overall program information, a tentative schedule for the sessions, and the details for at least the first session. The details for the following sessions (e.g. date, location, format, topic title, speaker name and COI form, etc.) must be submitted at least 4 weeks prior to the session date.

After each session, we will require the attendance list and a summary/report of the completed evaluations. Our office will issue attendance certificates unless other arrangements are made.