In a time when the healthcare landscape is increasingly complex and clinicians are asked to do more with less, education must be as effective and efficient as possible. CO*RE demonstrates that coordinated, multi-disciplinary education delivers deeper reach, higher quality and greater resilience than any single organization could achieve alone. Collaboration isn’t just a nice idea, it’s a necessity. CO*RE shows us what’s possible when we link arms and lead with purpose.
In the spring of 2010, representatives from several national healthcare professional organizations gathered with a shared sense of urgency. A few attendees had previously collaborated on a bold smoking-cessation initiative, Cease Smoking Today (CS2day), proving that multi-association CME could move the needle on public health. Faced with an escalating opioid crisis, they envisioned an even more ambitious partnership, one that focused on addressing opioids and public health. That vision became CO*RE (Collaborative for REMS Education) — now 15 years strong!
From Common Ground to Shared Purpose
For those who had participated in CS2day, the experience revealed that meaningful collaboration is possible among organizations with different structures, cultures and priorities so long as the mission is clear and shared. So, when the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) learned the FDA might require Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS)-compliant continuing education for opioids, it convened nine national organizations — American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA), American Osteopathic Association (AOA), American Pain Society (APS), American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), CAFP, Interstate Postgraduate Medical Association (IPMA) and Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation (NPHF) to build a new collaboration.
CO*RE officially launched in 2010 with the nine partners, three “in-cooperation” partners (AAFP, the Council on Medical Specialty Societies, and a 21-state medical-society consortium) and two technical experts, Healthcare Performance Consulting (outcomes) and Medscape (online delivery). Diverse in specialty and scope yet united by one conviction — that education, more than regulation alone, could change practice and save lives — this group set the foundation for what would become a 15+ year nationally recognized collaboration.
CO*RE began its work in June 2010 and spent the next three years laying the groundwork with only modest support from two industry grants (Purdue and Pfizer); the bulk of the work remained unfunded. During the lean start-up phase, the collaboration defined core competencies, recruited multidisciplinary faculty, built a shared collaborative structure and drafted preliminary curriculum while an FDA Education Blueprint unfolded. Partner representatives regularly attended REMS stakeholder meetings, giving CO*RE insight into the policy landscape and the implications for frontline clinicians.
Designed for Durability: A Blueprint for Collaboration
From the beginning, CO*RE was built not just to execute a project, but to endure as a partnership. Its founding principles — intentional collaboration, capacity building, continuous improvement and mission-driven work — fostered a culture of trust and shared accountability that have become the collaboration’s “secret sauce.”
CO*RE’s infrastructure reflected that intention. A formal executive team handled strategic governance. An operations team managed daily activities, including content development, faculty training, accreditation, partner communications and outcomes. A faculty advisory panel ensured interdisciplinary input and peer credibility. All partners signed formal agreements, joined monthly virtual calls and met in person annually. These commitments built trust, transparency and long-term engagement.
- Clear Governance: A nimble executive team steers strategy, while an operations team oversees content development, faculty training, accreditation, communication and outcomes.
- Interdisciplinary Insight: A standing faculty advisory panel brings multidisciplinary credibility and keeps best practices at the center.
- Formal Commitments: Every partner signs an agreement, attends monthly virtual calls and gathers in person each year — commitments that reinforce trust, transparency and shared accountability.
This “safe space” lets organizations check their politics at the door and focus on education that helps clinicians help patients. Eight of the original nine partners still sit at the table, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) joined in 2022 since their members were in need of education around opioid prescribing.
Importantly, CO*RE’s collaboration has never been static. Partners are encouraged to grow and evolve within the work. Participation varies based on each organization’s capacity, but all voices matter. “Fun” isn’t just permitted; it is required. And the result is a collaboration that is not only highly productive, but unmistakably human — and resilient enough to keep evolving alongside the national response to pain and opioid use.
When the Call Came, CO*RE Was Ready
In July 2012, the FDA released a classwide REMS for ER/LA opioids. For the first time in history, industry funding for CE/CME was not just encouraged but mandated as a central pillar of a federal public health strategy. The FDA’s Blueprint laid out a detailed, eight-page roadmap of required content for REMS-compliant education. The REMS Program Companies (RPC) was formed to administer the mandated CE/CME grants process using manufacturer pooled funds.
When the RPC released its first RFA, CO*RE arrived with hard data in hand: A landmark CO*RE needs assessment study (funded by Pfizer and Purdue grants) that mapped clinicians’ knowledge gaps and practice barriers in detail. With those insights, and a fully drafted implementation plan, CO*RE moved immediately from award to action.
First-grant highlights (January 2013–February 2014):
- Curriculum: Developed a modular, engaging curriculum aligned with the FDA Blueprint.
- Faculty: Recruited and trained a diverse group of clinician-educators across multiple specialties and disciplines.
- Assessment: Built and validated a rigorous post-assessment tool to ensure comprehension and identify remaining gaps.
- Reach: Delivered a robust mix of live and enduring educational activities, reaching prescribers in a wide range of practice settings across the country.
More than content and numbers, CO*RE offered credibility. Each partner’s name carried trust with learners, and their reach extended deep into clinical practice. By 2014, CO*RE had exceeded its REMS-compliant learner completion targets. But the need was still great; there was more work to do.
Today, as a recipient of 11 RPC grants, CO*RE is still leveraging its momentum to expand, enhance and evolve its offerings. The partners continue to share a responsibility to address this crisis with education, compassion and unwavering commitment.
Adapting, Advancing and Enduring
As the opioid crisis evolved, CO*RE remained dedicated to its founding principles, continuously improving and building capacity around the mission. The collaboration secured a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to add programming on adolescent prescription misuse. As evaluations identified niche needs, CO*RE drew from its partners’ expertise to expand offerings beyond REMS-specific activities to also focus more content on substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions.
Even during COVID, when CO*RE did not receive RPC funding, CO*RE partners continued to meet and strategize for future funding opportunities. Some partners arranged to deliver in-kind education with the existing curriculum. That agility cemented learner loyalty and led to renewed, uninterrupted RPC grants in subsequent years.
Entering its fifteenth year with the capacity to cumulatively reach over 1 million* healthcare professionals, CO*RE includes a mix of founding and new partners, continues monthly virtual calls and annual in-person meetings. The guiding principles remain unchanged: intentional collaboration, capacity-building, continuous improvement and mission-driven work.
*This collective reach may include some overlap between association memberships and audiences.
What We've Learned: Tenets of a Thriving Collaboration
CO*RE’s 15-year journey offers five practical lessons for other organizations considering collaboration:
- Make It Safe: Build a space where education leads the agenda, partners speak candidly, problems surface early and keep the mission — not politics — at the center.
- Design for Structure and Flexibility: A solid infrastructure makes collaboration sustainable, and built-in flexibility allows a collaboration to be responsive and able to pivot.
- Start With Shared Values: Alignment on purpose, especially in service of patient care, is more important than uniformity of approach.
- Celebrate the Work: Joy matters. People return to what is meaningful, human and satisfying.
- Invest in the Long Game: Collaborations like CO*RE require time, trust and tenacity, but the payoff is profound.
A Model Worth Emulating
The continuing education field is no stranger to rapid change, yet it is uncommon to see numerous, diverse partners collaborate so steadily, and for so long, toward a common cause. CO*RE is an example of a collaboration that didn’t just work, it flourished and continues to thrive.
This article used AI for grammar and organizational flow.
Jerri Davis, CHCP, serves as executive director of CO*RE and VP of education & professional development at the California Academy of Family Physicians. With more than 35 years in medical society management, she has worked in CAFP’s education programs since 2000 and has led those efforts since 2020. She has guided the CORE collaboration since 2022. A longtime advocate for education, she also served nearly a decade on her local school board.
Sheila Robertson, MPH, serves as the curriculum and outcomes liaison for CO*RE. She has been a consultant/contractor in the field of CE/CME since 2017, before which she held a multitude of roles at an ACCME-accredited provider since 2001. She also coordinates community health plans and grants for local health coalitions and is a community benefit contractor for AdventHealth Ottawa (KS).
Heidi Ness is director of accreditation and educational technology at IPMA, where she’s served for over 20 years, overseeing CME/CE accreditation, joint providership, quality-improvement initiatives and learning technologies. She’s led grants, needs assessments, program development, and for three years has supported CO*RE’s governance and curriculum workflows.