The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) sets and enforces standards in physician continuing education ( or 'life long learning') within the United States. It acts as the overseeing body for institutions and organizations providing continuing medical education

Continuing medical education

Continuing medical education refers to a specific form of continuing education that helps those in the medical field maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. These activities may take place as live events, written publications, online programs, audio, video, or...

 (CME) activities.
The Council's seven member, or founding, organizations are the American Board of Medical Specialties

American Board of Medical Specialties

The American Board of Medical Specialties is a non-profit physician-led umbrella organization for 24 of the 26 approved medical specialty boards in the United States...

 (ABMS), the American Hospital Association

American Hospital Association

The American Hospital Association is an organization that promotes the quality provision of health care by hospitals and health care networks through such efforts as promoting effective public policy and providing information related to health care and health administration to health care...

 (AHA), the American Medical Association

American Medical Association

The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...

 (AMA), the Association of American Medical Colleges

Association of American Medical Colleges

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC and established in 1876. It administers the Medical College Admission Test...

 (AAMC), the Association for Hospital Medical Education (AHME), the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), and the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). These organizations established the ACCME in 1980.
The ACCME sets standards and ceritifes that institutions and organizations meet those standards. "CME credit" is part of special programs offered by other organizations (ex., the American Medical Association) and is not the purvue of the ACCME.
The ACCME's mission is to provide those in the medical field with opportunities to maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. A voluntary self-regulated system and a peer-review process are used to regulate and accredit medical education

Medical education in the United States

Medical education in the United States includes educational activities involved in the education and training of medical doctors in the United States, from entry-level training through to continuing education of qualified specialists....

providers.

The primary responsibilities of the ACCME are to:

• accredit institutions and organizations offering CME
• define criteria for evaluation of educational programs and ensure compliance with these standards
• develop methods for measuring the effectiveness of CME and its accreditation