Continuous Medical Education Committee (CME)

I. General

The ERA Continuous Education Committee (CME) is in charge of organizing the CME Courses as well as other special educational sessions (i.e. Hands-on Courses) held during the annual Congress and any other initiative that the Council feels appropriate.  

This committee will prioritise themes of fundamental relevance for preparing nephrologists to the challenges of the new technologies and precision medicine and up-date nephrologists in major areas of interest in the field.

The programme of the CME Courses and other special sessions must be approved by the Council. Furthermore, the CME Courses and special sessions held during the Congress, including the speakers and chairs, must be in harmony and should not duplicate the main Congress programme.

There should be a maximum number of Courses/sessions which must reflect the room availability at the congress venue and also the budget assigned by the Council to this activity.

2. Committee Members, nominations, terms and rotation

1. 5/6 members: Chair; if applicable the Chair-Elect; Renal Science Chair; Chair of the Registry, YNP Chair and the Chair of the Congress Scientific Committee of the Congress in which the CME Courses will be held
2. All members, except the Chair and the Chair-Elect, will follow the normal election, term and rotation according to their specific role within their committee
3. Candidates for Chair are instead nominated by the Council following an open call and they must be Full members, he/she is any person who: is active in the field of education/teaching aspects of nephrology or someone whose expertise is considered by the ERA Council relevant for any other reason. When submitting his/her candidacy he/she must send a description of their current activities (1 page), supporting letters from two Full ERA members, as well as their Candidate Application Form and fill in their DoI
4. An open call regarding the free position of Chair must be posted on the website, and an e-mail blast must be sent to all Full members, the year before the termination of the mandate of the current Chair
5. To allow a smooth transition the nomination of the new Chair will take place, where possible, at least one year in advance of the expiration of the term of office of the current Chair to be substituted. The Chair-Elect will be part of the Committee until he/she will start his/her term, during this time he/she will have voice but no vote. The new appointment will become effective upon expiration of the demitting Chair’s mandate
6. The Chair remains in office for three years
7. Decisions are to be taken by majority by the members, including the Chair and the Chair has a casting vote
8. If the Chair leaves the Committee before ending his/her term, a new Chair must be elected within the next 12 months, following the procedure described above. The newly elected Chair will remain on the Committee for the normal term of three years
9. For the rules regarding the reimbursement policy for the Chair and, if applicable, the Chair-Elect who participates in face-to-face meetings, for example if organised at the time of the annual ERA Congress, one must refer to the “General Rules for ERA Committees”
10. The CME Chair (and if applicable the Chair-Elect), if not a speaker during the annual ERA Congress, will be invited to attend the Congress: all the details can be found in the appropriate section of the “Specifications for Organising the ERAs Congresses and Meetings”
11. Diplomas for CME Committee Members. For this matter one should refer to the appropriate section in the “General Rules for ERA Committees”.

III. Duties

1. The Chair can be invited to participate in Council meetings when deemed necessary, however, normally, it will be the Renal Science Chair who will represent this committee during the Council meetings
2. Normally all meetings of the CME Committee, if any, should be held by teleconference
3. Once a year, normally during a Virtual Council meeting held in January, the Chair must present an annual report (both technical and financial) of the activity of the CME Committee to the Council for review, discussion and eventual approval
4. The CME Chair must identify, for each of the CME Course topics, a Course Coordinator and Course Vice-Coordinator(the term for both positions will be three years following the term of the Chair of the Committee itself), they will develop the CME Course programmes and special educational sessions (except the Hands-on Courses – see details below) and identify the speakers. If applicable, the Course Coordinator should be chosen from the Working Group Board Members, while the Vice-Coordinator in collaboration with YNP. The programme speakers MUST be Europeans, preferably ERA Full members. In view of the work done, the speakers will receive a special diploma and due visibility will be given to them through the ERA communication/media channels. The speakers will receive the usual speaker reimbursement according to the ERA Policy (see “Specifications for Organising the ERA’s Congresses and Meetings”)
5. The CME Chair should also identify the Chair for the Hands-On Courses that are suitable for pre-congress practical courses; also in this case the term is of three years and follows the term of the CME Committee Chair
6. The Hands-on course Chair should identify a maximum of 2 different topics and respective Coordinators that will be responsible for the pre-congress Hands-on courses. The topics and the programme must be evaluated by the CME committee and then approved by the Council
7. The CME Chair and the Chair of the Congress Scientific Committee will make sure that there is no or minimal overlap between these courses held during the Congress and the main Congress programme, also with regard to speakers/chairs.

IV. CME Course Format

1. Each Course will have a strict format:
   • what we know (consolidated knowledge)
   • progress over the last 2 years
   • summing up; plenty of discussion time
2. Each course should be organised as fully dynamic sessions, inclusion of clinical cases and integration of recent research findings on the subject
3. Speakers must provide a brief summary of their presentations (including references, case reports, etc if applicable.) with clear educational goals, the Coordinators instead should provide a course introduction and summary as well as describe the learning points of the course 
4. All speakers must prepare at least 2 questions related to their talk with the aim of making the session as interactive as possible
5. All speakers must comply with these requirements
6. An end of Course survey will be performed to see if the educational goals were reached
7. Each Course will normally have no more than 4 presentations (half day).

V.CME Hands-on Course Format

1. Each Course will have a strict format:
   • what we know (consolidated knowledge)
   • progress over the last 2 years
   • practical/virtual simulation
   • summing up; plenty of discussion time
2. The CME Hands-On Course Coordinators must provide a brief Course introduction and summary as well as describe the learning points of the Course 
3. At the end of the Course a survey will be performed to see if the educational goals were reached 
4. Each Course will normally have no more than 4 presentations for the theoretical part and comprehensive practical/virtual simulation. 

VI. Special rules

The CME Committee Chair is an ex-officio member of the:

1. SEID Committee
2. Congress Scientific Committee.

Last update: February 2024