11 Places To Get Free CME Credit

Fed up with spending thousands of dollars a year to go to upscale hotels just to get continuing medical education (CME) credits?

There is such a thing as a free lunch. Well, there is such a thing as a free CME credit, which you can earn from the comfort of your desk while eating lunch. Whether you’re looking to fulfill CME requirements from your institution, the American Medical Association’s Physician Recognition Award (PRA), the American Board of Radiology or another organization, here are 11 places for diagnostic radiologists to get free Category 1 CME credits, accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).

Institute for Advanced Medical Education – Applied Radiology 

The Institute for Advanced Medical Education offers a handful of free online CME courses along with paid ones. Look for the free ones under the section “CME from Applied Radiology.” Each CME course offers one credit, with topics including digital breast tomosynthesis, best practices in advanced abdominal CT and cardiac CT, contrast enhanced MRA of the body, and others.

More at: https://iame.com/online/ or http://www.appliedradiology.org/courses.aspx

Medscape

With a good assortment of radiology and practice management topics, Medscape offers 0.25to-one CME credit per course. The topics are broken up into four categories: clinical briefs, patient cases, journal articles, knowledge and practice.

More here: http://www.medscape.org/radiology

Virtual Radiologic

Offered jointly with the University of Arizona College of Medicine at the Arizona Health Sciences Center, Virtual Radiologic offers six free, live online CME lectures annually (which are recorded and archived). Another six from 2012 are still current and available. You’ll earn one-to-two credits per module on topics, such as MR and CT imaging of brain trauma, landmarks of cortical neuroanatomy, radiology of the post-breast cancer patient, what the radiologist needs to know about CT radiation dosing, demystifying the Pterygopalatine Fossa, and more.

More here: http://education.vrad.com/online-cme/

Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)

RSNA members have access to more than 300 peer-reviewed programs at no cost. When sorting through the options, look for subspecialty tags, such as cardiac radiology, MR, CT, GI, and leadership and management to find ones most applicable to your needs. Each module is worth one credit. Choose from refresher courses, cases of the day, radiographics, and point-of-care learning.

More here: http://www2.rsna.org/timssnet/search/RSNACustomSearch.cfm

MedPix

The Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Informatics at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md., offers a free online medical image database and radiology portal with more than 675 radiology cases. Review four cases for one hour of CME credit. Images are provided from contributors around the country. Choose the case of the day or scroll through past cases for ones of interest to you. Cases are available for iPad users, as well.

More here: http://rad.usuhs.edu/medpix/index.html

American College of Radiology (ACR)

ACR members have access to a number of free CME activities, including daily cases, monthly Journal of the American College of Radiology CME articles, self-assessment tests and ethics/professionalism online modules. Each completed activity earns one CME credit.

More here: http://www.acr.org/Education/e-Learning/Free-CME

International Center for Postgraduate Medical Education (ICPME)

Offering live and recorded webinars, the ICPME offers a number of free CME courses, in addition to paid ones. Currently available at no cost, you’ll find webinars on prostate MRI review, breast MRI review, the emerging role of MRI in prostate imaging, MRI contrast agents in evaluating liver disease, and breast tomosynthesis. These count for one CME credit each. To find upcoming free courses, click on “live webcasts.”  To find past courses that still available for credit, click on “archived webcasts.”

More here:  http://www.icpme.us/

The Association for Medical Ultrasound (AIUM)

AIUM members have access to a number of free and discounted CME courses through the organization, via Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine articles, the convention, web-based seminars, practice guidelines, and a safety online test.

More here: http://aium.org/cme/cme.aspx

Baylor College of Medicine

While Baylor’s online CME program does not include radiology-specific courses, it does provide education that counts for hours outside the specialty. Baylor’s free CME topics include cardiology, diabetes, hypertension, medical ethics, mental health, neurology, pediatrics, pulmonology, women’s health, and professional development. You can earn 0.5to-two CME credits per course, and more than two dozen courses are available.

More here:  http://www.baylorcme.org/

USATravMed.com

Again, not specific to radiology, but these USATravMed.com courses can be applied to the non-specialized portion of continuing medical education requirements. Earn 0.75-to-three CME credits on courses covering pathogens, women and depression, managing chronic lower back pain, adult vaccinations, managing diabetes, hip fractures, and other topics.

More here: http://usatravmed.com/main/page_free_cme_physicians.php

SonoWorld

SonoWorld only offers one free CME course at present, but you can earn one credit for learning about using ultrasound as part of an adjunctive technique to detect breast cancer.  

More here:  http://www.sonoworld.com/Client/CME/CMEOverView.aspx?Id=178