The American Academy of Ophthalmology is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Academy's CME Mission Statement
The purpose of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) program is to present ophthalmologists with the highest quality lifelong learning opportunities that promote improvement and change in physician practices, performance or competence, thus enabling such physicians to maintain or improve the competence and professional performance needed to provide the best possible eye care for their patients.
Content Areas
Target Audience
Types of Activities
Expected Results
CME Credit
The American Academy of Ophthalmology is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology designates its annual meeting as an Other (blended live and enduring material) activity. Check back for the maximum number of AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
The American Medical Association has determined that non–U.S. licensed physicians who participate in this CME activity are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.
Physicians registered as In Person and Virtual are eligible to claim CME credit.
Attendees registered as exhibitors and spouse/guests are not eligible to receive CME credit.
Portions of the meeting will be identified for credit. Some individual events and sessions will be identified as non-CME in the program.
Claiming CME
For AAO 2023 and 2023 Subspecialty Day, the deadline to claim CME was March 29.
You did not need to track which sessions you attended, just the total number of hours spent in sessions for each claim.
When you can claimed CME credits and completed the evaluation a certificate/proof of attendance was emailed to you.
Academy Members
CME transcripts that include AAOE Half-Day Coding Sessions, Subspecialty Day and/or AAO 2023 credits are available to Academy members through the Academy’s CME Central web page.
The Academy transcript cannot list individual course attendance. It will list only the overall credits claimed for educational activities at AAOE Half-Day Coding Sessions, Subspecialty Day and/or AAO 2023.
Nonmembers
The Academy provides nonmembers with verification of credits earned and reported for a single Academy-sponsored CME activity.
Proof of Attendance
When you can claimed CME credits and completed the evaluation a certificate/proof of attendance was emailed to you. You can use this document for reimbursement or hospital privileges, or for nonmembers who need it to report CME credit.
If you only wanted proof of attendance, you were able to generate a certificate of attendance.
Academy Members
You are able to print a certificate/proof of attendance letter from your transcript page. Your certificate will also be emailed to you.
Nonmembers
If you generated a certificate of attendance it was emailed to you.
CME Reporting Questions
Send your questions about CME credit reporting to cme@aao.org.
For Continuing Certification questions, contact the American Board of Ophthalmology at MOC@abpo.org.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:
- Identify recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases.
- Identify major advances in key areas of cutting-edge research and technology in ophthalmology.
- Incorporate skills and techniques from the Skills Transfer courses into their daily practice.
- Integrate practice management strategies to address critical business and operational tasks in the ophthalmologist's practice.
- Develop strategies to identify and address their own individual professional practice gaps.
Target Audience
This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of ophthalmologists, nurses, ophthalmic technicians and other allied health personnel who are engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases, as well as practice administrators responsible for managing the business aspects of an ophthalmic practice.
Subspecialty Day CME Credit
The American Academy of Ophthalmology is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Friday and Saturday Subspecialty Day Activity
The American Academy of Ophthalmology designates its Subspecialty Day meetings as Other (blended live and enduring material) activity. Check back for maximum AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Physicians registered as In Person and Virtual are eligible to claim CME credit.
Self-Assessment Credit
Many Academy online and print activities are approved for self-assessment credit, including ONE Network Cases and Courses, and selected BCSC sections. For more information visit:
Please be advised that the ABO is not an accrediting body for purposes of any CME program. ABO does not sponsor this or any outside activity, and ABO does not endorse any particular CME activity. Learn more about the ABO CME and Self-Assessment Credit requirements at abop.org/maintain-certification/cme-self-assessment/.
European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) CME/CPD Requirements
European ophthalmologists can convert CME credit from AAO 2023 to meet European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) CME/CPD requirements.
The American Medical Association has an agreement of mutual recognition of Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits with the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), the accreditation body for European countries. Physicians interested in converting AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ to UEMS-European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education CME credits (ECMECs) should contact the UEMS at mutualrecognition@uems.eu.
AAOE Half-Day Coding Sessions CME Credit
The American Academy of Ophthalmology is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Fundamentals of Ophthalmic Coding
The American Academy of Ophthalmology designates Fundamentals of Ophthalmic Coding as a live activity. Check back for maximum AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Coding Camp
The American Academy of Ophthalmology designates Coding Camp as a live activity. Check back for maximum AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Scientific Integrity and Disclosure of Financial Interest
The American Academy of Ophthalmology is committed to ensuring that all continuing medical education (CME) information is based on the application of research findings and the implementation of evidence-based medicine. It seeks to promote balance, objectivity and absence of commercial bias in its content. All persons in a position to control the content of this activity must disclose any and all financial interests. The Academy has mechanisms in place to resolve all conflicts of interest prior to an educational activity being delivered to the learners.
Presenter Disclosures
The Academy requires all presenters to disclose on their first slide whether they have any ophthalmology-related financial interests from the past 24 months. Presenters are required to verbally disclose any relevant financial interests that specifically pertain to their presentation.
Even with these acknowledgements, the Academy’s Annual Meeting Program Committee expects that all presenters will give a fair and unbiased scientific talk. If you feel that a presenter did not follow these guidelines or was unduly biased, please contact the Academy’s meetings staff at meetings@aao.org.
A complete listing of presenter financial disclosures for the past couple of years can be found in Meeting Archives.
Control of Content
The Academy considers presenting authors, not co-authors, to be in control of the educational content. It is Academy policy and traditional scientific publishing and professional courtesy to acknowledge all people contributing to the research, regardless of CME control of the live presentation of that content. This acknowledgement is made in a similar way in other Academy CME activities. Though they are acknowledged, co-authors do not have control of the CME content and their disclosures are not published or resolved.
Program Committee Disclosures
The Academy has a profound duty to its members, the larger medical community and the public to ensure the integrity of all of its scientific, educational, advocacy and consumer information activities and materials. Thus each Academy Trustee, Secretary, committee Chair, committee member, taskforce chair, taskforce member, councilor, and representative to other organizations (“Academy Leader”), as well as the Academy staff and those responsible for organizing and presenting CME activities must disclose interactions with companies and manage conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest that affect this integrity. Where such conflicts or perceived conflicts exist, they must be appropriately and fully disclosed and resolved.
A listing of financial disclosures for contributors to the Academy's 2024 educational activities will be available online in the fall. Review the listing of financial disclosures for contributors to the Academy's 2023 educational activities.
All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.
Teaching at a Live Activity
Teaching instruction courses, or delivering a scientific paper or poster are not AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ activities and should not be included when calculating your total AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.
Presenters may claim AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ through the American Medical Association.
CME and AAPC Continuing Education Credit
The American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) will honor 1:1 CEUs for any live event offering CME credit or AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.
IJCAHPO Continuing Education Credit
The International Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology (IJCAHPO) reviews courses for continuing education credit toward certification or recertification in ophthalmic medical assisting for COA, COT and COMT levels. Approved courses are classified as either Group A or Group B. IJCAHPO may award continuing education credit for specified courses. IJCAHPO does not cosponsor these approved courses, or any other review course. A certificate of completion is available upon completion of the course. Visit the IJCAHPO website for more information.
NOTE: IJCAHPO credits cannot be claimed on the Academy’s online CME system. Credit must be claimed directly with IJCAHPO when you are ready to recertify.