The Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) has achieved a great breakthrough in becoming an internationally recognized accreditation body through obtaining substantial equivalency for its continuing medical education (CME)/Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation system to that of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®), one of the most recognized CME accreditation systems in the world.
The agreement with the ACCME was determined after a meticulous review and evaluation of QCHP's standards, policies and processes by ACCME. This included a detailed report, documentation of educational activities, a site visit and a survey interview conducted by the ACCME's president and Chief Executive Officer on October 2016. The information taken from the review process and the survey interview provided the ACCME with verification of the successful implementation of the QCHP's continuing medical education accreditation program and decision-making process.
"We are pleased to award substantial equivalency to our colleague accreditor, the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP). I commend QCHP for its dedication to building international collaboration and advancing the quality of CME/CPD. QCHP's accreditation system assures that CME/CPD is based on the needs of healthcare professionals, measured for its effectiveness, meets standards of scientific integrity, and is independent of commercial influence. With this achievement, QCHP demonstrates its commitment to promoting consistent, high-quality education for individual healthcare professionals and interprofessional healthcare teams. We look forward to working together to achieve QCHP's ultimate goal of improving the health of patients in Qatar." — Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, President and CEO, ACCME
This achievement comes as part of the QCHP vision to build strategic relations with international accreditation bodies in the field of medical education and adds to QCHP's achievements in this regard, which started with having an equivalency agreement with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) followed by a credit conversion agreement with the American Medical Association (AMA) which enabled physicians registered in USA to use credit gained from participating in QCHP-AD-accredited activities to maintain their license of practice in the USA. In addition, it emphasizes the quality of the standards and policies of the continuing medical education accreditation program and their conformity with the international standards. This ensures providing quality CME/CPD activities for healthcare practitioners and is positively reflected on healthcare practitioners' professional practice in a way that will improve the quality of health services and patient outcomes in the state of Qatar.