This fall, we are celebrating the Center for Continuing Education’s 50th anniversary!

In the late 1920s, continuing medical education became integrated into medical practice, with the first mandatory program being instituted in the field of urology in 1934. In 1957, the American Medical Association (AMA) published the first guidelines for good medical practice, leading to continuing medical education offices being established in medical schools and specialty societies by the 1970s and ’80s. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) was founded in 1981 to create a national accreditation system.

Daniel Bernstein, MD, started the Boston University School of Medicine Continuing Medical Education Office in 1973. In 1974-1975, we offered Recent Advances in Dermatology, Language Dysfunction in Adults and Children, and other conferences such as the Second Annual Law and Medicine Symposium and the Second Annual Neurology Workshop. Since then, and continuing today, we work to design and implement evidence-based education for the healthcare team to advance their skills and performance, leading to improved patient outcomes.

Since 2006, we have been Accredited with Commendation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), achieving national recognition for the achievements of our team and our faculty. In 2008, our office became a provider of nursing continuing education under the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), who reaccredited us with Distinction in 2012, 2016, and 2020. 
 

The Evolution of Our Name

In 2015, our office was renamed the Barry M. Manuel Continuing Medical Education Office after Barry Manuel, MD, Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education from 1980 to his retirement in 2014.

In late 2022, we changed our name from the Continuing Medical Education Office to the Center for Continuing Education (CCE). This name change reflects our office’s award of Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education with Commendation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Our Joint Accreditation status reflects our years of successful collaboration with the University, Boston Medical Center and a broad range of health-focused organizations representing the interprofessional workforce.
 

Julie White, MS, CHCP, FSACME

CCE Director Julie White, MS, CHCP, FSACME, has been with the CCE since 1995, leading the team and overseeing the accreditation, personnel, and financial aspects of the operation.  In her 28 years at the Barry M. Manuel Center for Continuing Education, she has led the transformation of our office from a five person to a fifteen-person team with a national reputation for providing high-quality, innovative programs.

“Our profession and our team have gone through amazing changes in my time at Boston University. When I arrived, our focus was mainly conferences and we created one of the first medical school Internet-based CME activities in partnership with the Medical Examiner’s Office. Today, we are leading quality improvement programs, delivering education across the US and the world, and working with interprofessional clinical teams to drive change in practice.”
 

CCE Activities

Among the programs we currently offer, one activity is celebrating its own anniversary – Steven J. Parker Memorial Developmental-Behavioral Pediatric Conference: Clinical Problems in Primary Care will hold its 40th annual conference in 2024. Another long-running activity, Safer/Competent Opioid Prescribing Education (SCOPE of Pain), was awarded the 2014 National High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) award for Outstanding Prevention Effort by White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli.  Our long-standing international program Post-Graduate Pediatric Nutrition has now been offered for 8 consecutive years, has reached just over 41,000 physicians and included 110 live meetings abroad. 

We’re so excited to celebrate 50 years of continuing medical education with the amazing clinicians with whom we work. Here’s to 50 more years!