CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (COPE) held a training workshop on April 1, 2016 to educate CE providers on its new accreditation criteria and changes to the COPE accreditation process.

The COPE training workshop hosted over 100 attendees which took place at the Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, Ill. Attendees at the workshop came from optometry/medical schools, state/regional optometric associations, insurance/health benefit companies, media/journals, ophthalmology practices, national CE providers, medical education companies, International CE providers and state boards of optometry.

The workshop was designed to assist optometric CE professionals in developing strategies to ensure their organizational compliance with the COPE accreditation criteria, standards for commercial support and COPE policies.

In addition to representatives from COPE, speakers from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medication Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (ACEHP) were in attendance. The workshop also included a presentation on Best Practices in CE/CME from the Veterans Health Administration Employee Education System (VHA EES).

“We are planning another workshop this Fall, but no dates have been finalized yet,” Susy Yu, ARBO president said. “Materials are available on our website and we're happy to answer any questions.”

COPE announced in 2015 that it was changing its CE accreditation system to be equivalent to other health care professions in order to support the overall direction toward collaborative, inter-disciplinary care for better patient outcomes and improved community health.

Starting in 2017, CE providers will be able to choose to become an accredited provider. Yu commented, “The workshop was a huge success. We brought together a community of optometric CE professionals to learn the new process and share ideas with each other. We had such a great response to the workshop that we’re planning to make this an annual event.”