Journal of European CME (11/15/22) Regnier, Kathleen; Travlos, Dimitra V.; Pace, Daniel; et al.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and the American Nurses Credentialing Center have launched Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE). This body is "the first and only accrediting body in the world to offer the opportunity to be simultaneously accredited to provide CE activities for multiple healthcare professions through a single, unified application process, fee structure and set of accreditation standards," the groups note. Applicants for Joint Accreditation must demonstrate that IPCE involves at least a quarter of their CE activities. Joint Accreditation has added several more professions already — athletic trainers, dentists, dieticians, optometrists, physician associates/physician assistants, psychologists and social workers — meaning that jointly accredited groups can provide IPCE for as many as 10 professions without obtaining accreditation for each one separately. In this article, the American Academy of Physician Associates, the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry's Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (ARBO/COPE) and the Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer discuss their experiences in providing ICPE. For example, ARBO/COPE's Joint Accreditation membership increased the general public and healthcare education community's awareness of many optometry advancements. Other benefits for optometrists include better communication, more visibility and credibility among healthcare CE providers, and broader national and international expansion of CE offerings. "To effectively integrate interprofessional collaborative practice throughout healthcare systems across the world, IPCE needs to become an integral part of lifelong learning for all health professions," the article authors conclude.

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