The Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS) recommends that the institutions that sponsor/provide CME-CPD activities on a regional, national and international level, as well as the activities themselves, should be accredited through the European Union. The EBU and EAU are aware that a new vision of Continuing Medical Education should be conveyed and that it shall have to move from a credit accumulation system to a system based on confidence and reliance on people.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned goals, the EBU first istituted a credit system to control CME-CPD activities of specialists. The system, applied to CME, was inaugurated in July 1998, at a European School of Urology (ESU) Course in Lisbon, as a pilot study.
In 2004 both the EBU and the EAU joined forces to improve the system and to make it into a truly European System (EU-ACME system), to be used by all European urologists, to help them to keep track of their educational activities, irrespective of the country they practice in or have participated in CME and/or CPD activities. For the system to become successful close co-operation between national as well as international associations is essential.
National, international and EAU activities can be accredited by the EBU Accreditation Committee. The mentioned activities are subject to a regular review.
The EU-ACME office acts as a central 'institution' where all information forwarded by national and/or international urological associations is kept and where registered credit points are harmonized for the European Union. The EU-ACME Credit System has been designed to ensure uniform standards, while taking into account each country's present organisational structure.