Joint Accreditation Expands Cedars-Sinai’s Interprofessional Continuing Education

The Continuing Medical Education program at Cedars-Sinai has earned Joint Accreditation with Commendation, enhancing continuing education opportunities for healthcare professionals and signifying that Cedars-Sinai upholds the highest standards in providing relevant, effective, practice-based education.

Joint Accreditation means that many continuing education activities are now able to offer profession-specific continuing education credits to physicians as well as nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals, provided they are planned by, with, and for the specific profession and healthcare team.

Through Joint Accreditation, in 2024, physicians, advanced practice nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will have the opportunity to earn continuing education credits through Cedars-Sinai from their respective organizations: the American Medical Association/Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. Similarly, physician assistants, dietitians and athletic trainers can earn credits from their professional organizations: the American Academy of Physician Associates, the Commission on Dietetic Registration and the Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer.

Other credit opportunities may be added each year, as appropriate, from the American Psychological Association, the Council on Optometric Practitioner Education, the Association of Social Work Boards, the American Dental Association, and other participating bodies.

After a lengthy, in-depth evaluation, the accrediting bodies commended Cedars-Sinai “for demonstrating that yours is a learning organization and a change agent for the interprofessional healthcare teams you serve.”

Megan Swartz, associate director of Cedars-Sinai’s Continuing Medical Education program, called the designation an honor and said, “Joint Accreditation highlights the interprofessional nature of education that we develop and provide for healthcare leaders and helps ensure we continue to meet the needs of all our learners by addressing practice gaps and changing skills and strategies. It’s exciting to be able to expand the program to offer more credit opportunities for them.”

The Cedars-Sinai Continuing Medical Education program offers live courses, enduring (on-demand) internet materials, and regularly scheduled series (RSS) to healthcare providers. Prior to receiving Joint Accreditation, the program was accredited for more than 20 years by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Education.

Mark Noah, MD, the Melvin Brody MD Chair of Medical Education and associate dean of Medical Education in Academic Affairs at Cedars-Sinai, was involved in the process of earning Joint Accreditation.

“Accreditation helps improve skills, performance and retention of healthcare team members and, in turn, has shown to improve patient outcomes,” Noah said. “We are proud to have received Joint Accreditation for our Continuing Education program and are eager to help facilitate additional learning opportunities and improved skills and performance to healthcare providers within the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the region and beyond.”

Jeffrey A. Golden, MD, vice dean of Research and Graduate Education and director of the Burns and Allen Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai, added, “Joint Accreditation with Commendation acknowledges that we promote interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork-focused continuing education for healthcare professionals through practice-based and high-quality learning opportunities. It directly speaks to the education aspect of our mission to deliver outstanding healthcare to patients.”

Continuing medical education opportunities at Cedars-Sinai can be found here.

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Physician Shadowing Program Offers Students Rare Access