For years JACC Journals have offered Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits to ACC members. Since last September — in response to the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) 2016 policy change allowing Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part II credit to be given simultaneously with certain types of CME activities — JACC Journals have offered members a chance to earn seamless dual CME and MOC Part II credit through monthly education offerings.

Fast forward to today and the number of ACC members taking advantage of the free dual CME/MOC offerings has grown steadily (Figure). Between September 2016 and May 2017, 5,265 MOC credits have been claimed.

For ACC members, the overall potential impact of this program is large. Five JACC Journals (JACC, JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, JACC: Heart Failure, JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, and JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions) feature monthly CME/MOC offerings. JACC: Basic to Translational Science, published bimonthly, also offers credit opportunity with each issue. Through JACC Journals alone, members could earn a total of 66 CME/MOC credits each year – more than enough to provide all the CME credits required by most states for medical licensure renewal (usually 25 credits per year), and more than enough to cover the ABIM Part II credit requirement of 100 credits for each five-year period.

Each JACC journal has at least one designated CME editor. Ragavendra R. Baliga, MD, FACC, functions in this capacity for JACC and for JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging. He notes that the CME/MOC articles from JACC have been carefully selected to enrich the readers’ educational experiences with the view of transforming patient care and improving heart health. “These offerings should not only hone the readers’ diagnostic and therapeutic skills but also expand their knowledge of cutting-edge breakthroughs in cardiovascular medicine,” he says.

Other CME editors include: L. Kristin Newby, MD, FACC, (JACC: Basic to Translational Science); Bill Gogas, MD, PhD, (JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions); Smit Vasaiwala, MD, (JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology); and Tariq Ahmad, MD, MPH, FACC, Lauren Cooper, MD, FACC, Adam DeVore, MD, Robert Mentz, MD, FACC, Kishan Parikh, MD, Mitchell Psotka, MD, PhD, and Abhinav Sharma, MD (JACC Heart Failure).

"These offerings should not only hone the readers’ diagnostic and therapeutic skills but also expand their knowledge of cutting-edge breakthroughs in cardiovascular medicine." — Ragavendra R. Baliga, MD, FACC

All JACC Journals are available for free to members at OnlineJACC.org. Claiming CME/MOC credit is simple and can be done from any computer, tablet or smartphone. Members need their ACC.org username (or primary email address) and password, which can be obtained from the ACC Resource Center or from ACC.org. For MOC credit, clinicians must also have their ABIM ID, which can be obtained from ABIM.org. Then just follow these steps to obtain your credit:

1. Go to ACC.org and click “Log in to My ACC”
2. Click on “Menu” or “JACC”
3. Click on “JACC”
4. Click on “CME/MOC”
5. Click on “JACC Journals CME/MOC” (As of June 20, there are 59 offerings.)
6. Choose an offering of interest
7. Click on “Start Program”
8. On the Credit Agreement page, click “Agree” and “Submit”
9. Click on the “Article” tab to read the abstract, and then click on “here” at the bottom of the abstract page to receive a PDF copy of the article
10. Read the article
11. Click on the “Post Test” tab to take the quiz
12. Complete the quiz (You may re-take the quiz if a passing grade is not obtained on the first try.)
13. Click on “Evaluation” to complete the evaluation
14. Click on “Claim Credits” (Choose CME and/or MOC to claim respective credits.)
15. Once the module has been completed, return to ACC.org and log in again (if necessary)
16. Click “My ACC”
17. Click “My CME/CE Transcript” to verify that the MOC and CME credits have been added to your ACC transcript
18. After several days, you will receive a notification from ABIM that the MOC credits have been received and posted
19. You may go to ABIM.org and log into your personal page to confirm your credits have been received.

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Dr. Oetgen is ACC’s Executive Vice President, Science & Quality, Education and Publications and Dr. Waites is chair of the Health Affairs Committee.

Keywords: ACC Publications, Cardiology Magazine, Nurse Clinicians, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Medicaid, Medicare, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners

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