EBO Accreditation

Continuing medical education throughout the entire career is a moral and ethical duty of every practitioner/specialist and is subject to clear regulations for control.

The official European bodies have the task to:

  • Increase awareness of specialists in Europe for the need for Continuing Medical Education
  • Promote and ensure a high and uniform standard of education among specialists within member countries
  • Improve the quality of medical care in Europe

They are a practical instrument to facilitate the transfer of CME credits

  • – between European countries
  • – between different specialities
  • – between European system and comparable systems outside Europe

These official European bodies in charge of Continuing Medical Education are:

  • 1) European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME),
  • 2) UEMS section/board committee CME the EBO-CME committee, and the
  • 3) National Accrediting Authorities (NAA).

1) The EACCME, created in 1999 by the management council of the UEMS, is operational since year 2000. Its main goal is the harmonisation and improvement of the quality of specialist medical care in the European Union and member countries.

Its main missions are:
Strategic-political by setting the rules for the European Continuing Education, which gives the quality assurance criteria

Operational by working as a « clearing-house » for accreditation of international events with European CME points by forwarding applications to:
– NAA (National Accreditation Authorities)
– UEMS Sections/Boards of specialities (EBO)
– European Speciality Accreditation Board

2) The National Accreditation Authorities (NAA) are setting the rules for their own countries however the statutory significance of CME in each country may vary.

Legal obligations for CME have the following countries:
Austria, Croatia, Czech R, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland

Professional obligations for CME have the following countries:
Germany, Ireland, Spain, UK

Voluntary obligations for CME have the following countries:
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey

3) The EBO CME Committee has the task to promote and ensure a high and uniform standard of education amongst specialists within member countries. By reaching this goal, it allows an improvement of the quality of ophthalmic care in Europe.

The duty of the committee is to control the quality of CME activities in member countries by working together with the committees, scientific societies and universities or equivalent centres of each country.

The committee defines the requirements for European CME in accordance with the European Accreditation Council for CME (EACCME) and the National Accrediting Authorities (NAA) and validates those meetings/congresses /courses that fulfil these requirements.

The EBO has created special application-forms for EBO-accredited courses; these are events that fulfil special requirements (number of hours, quality of providers, a defined and obligatory number of MCQ’s ). After evaluation by the EBO-CME committee these events receive an EBO-accreditation.
The committee has the task to inform practitioners of the member countries about CME activities of particular interest.

The committee should find and validate new forms of education.

Subscribe to our updates & instant alerts | Enter email below


EVER Logo SOE Logo UEMS Logo ICIO Logo