Ever wish you could get Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit for the Free Open Access Meducation (FOAM) you already consume? We are excited to announce that 10 ALiEM articles are now available for AMA PRA Category 1 CME. This is a pilot program in collaboration with FOAMbase and EB Medicine. There is great content on trauma, geriatrics, pediatrics, critical care, and more. We think CME for FOAM is going to be a great way to increase sustainability for FOAM authors while keeping FOAM 100% free and open access.
The Bottom Line
- 10 high quality articles from ALiEM are now available for AMA PRA Category 1 CME (more to come if this pilot is successful)
- CME units can be obtained via the FOAMbase platform.
- Each blog post is equivalent to 0.25-0.50 CME units.
- There is a nominal CME charge ($4-8 per blog post). The revenue is shared between EB Medicine (CME accreditation provider), FOAMbase (centralized CME service for blog posts), and ALiEM/authors.
- The blog content remains 100% free for anyone to read, if CME units are not desired.
Blog Posts Available for CME
| ALiEM Blog Post | Category | Number of CME Units | Get CME |
| 5 tips for managing pain in older adults | Geriatrics | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
| Trick of the Trade: Pre-charge the defibrillator | Critical Care | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
| Highlights from the 2015 American Heart Association CPR and ECC guidelines | Critical Care | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
| Synthetic cannabinoid use reaches new heights | Toxicology | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
| Fentanyl: Adding fuel to the fire in the North American opioid epidemic | Toxicology | 0.5 | FOAMbase |
| Traumatic brain injuries in older adults | Trauma, Geriatrics | 0.5 | FOAMbase |
| PEM Pearls: The nonvisualized appendix quandary on ultrasound | Pediatrics | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
| PEM Pearls: Assessing radiation risk in children getting CT imaging | Pediatrics | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
| PEM Pearls: Cardiac causes of pediatric chest pain | Pediatrics | 0.5 | FOAMbase |
| Ultrasound For the Win! Case – 55-year-old man with chest pain | Ultrasound | 0.25 | FOAMbase |
Background
I remember attending a talk by Mel Herbert at the 2015 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) meeting where he said something that stuck:
“FOAM is not free.”
What he meant is that while FOAM is distributed for free and is a labor of love for the authors, there are costs associated with creating and distributing content. Authors spend unpaid time creating the material, there are web costs for hosting, podcasters need to buy hardware and software tools, etc.
We remember thinking, how can we keep FOAM free and high quality while increasing sustainability for the authors?
Fast forward to 2016 Council of EM Residency Directors (CORD) meeting to one of those fated hallway conversations with Michelle Lin (@M_Lin), Nupur Garg (@NupurGargMD), and myself. We asked ourselves, was there a way to provide CME for ALiEM content? We took up the challenge and built FOAMbase CME to address just that.
Philosophy
- We want FOAM to remain free. ALiEM blog posts will always be 100% free and open access to read and learn from. A fee only applies when obtaining CME credit.
- We hope revenue-sharing with the blog website and individual authors will help offset the time and material costs of producing high quality educational content.
- At the same time, it will give physicians a great new source of high quality CME, allowing them to obtain credit for content that they may already be reading.
Logistics
- Create a new user account at FOAMbase as an “Attending” physician. This will open CME options for you.
- Click on FOAM CME to view the list of available CME content, or click on the content-specific links in the table above.
- Click the “Get CME” icon next to the blog post. This will launch a guided process on reading and obtaining CME credit for that blog post.
Background
- FOAMbase is a human curated database of FOAM content. It was built to keep track of high quality FOAM content from around the world and cut down on the noise that exist with FOAM search engines like GoogleFOAM.
- FOAMbase CME is a custom add-on to FOAMbase with features required for CME administration, including pre-post quizzes, activity survey, certificate issuance, learner tracking, and a CME dashboard.
- We are working with EB Medicine as the CME accreditation body.
Feedback
Please let use know what you think. All comments are much appreciated. Nupur Garg and I will be at ACEP16 in the InnovatED section demoing the project. Come visit us!
Author information
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