The CME Mission Statement of the Southern Medical Association (SMA) is congruent with and supported by the organization’s mission and vision statements as follow:

SMA Mission Statement
The Southern Medical Association promotes the health of patients through advocacy, leadership, education, and service.

• What We Value: 
• Advocacy
• Leadership
• Collegiality
• Innovation

• What We Believe: 
• That physicians must be advocates for their patients and provide the leadership necessary to promote better health care in their communities;
• That education and scholarly interactions must be conducted in a collegial, supportive environment;
• That collaboration and innovation in health care delivery will best serve our patients as we work together to attain optimal health.

Vision Statement
The Southern Medical Association will be the preferred association for physicians and health professionals, and will be recognized for advocacy on key practice issues including leadership development for physicians, multi-specialty and interdisciplinary education and training, and innovative health care delivery models and services that improve quality and access to care.

CME Purpose
The purpose of SMA's CME program is 1) to provide self-assessment and lifelong learning for its professional membership of over 10,000 physicians and other members of the healthcare team; 2) to offer educational resources to all physicians and health care professionals to enhance competence and improve practice performance; and 3) to provide education that refreshes physicians’ knowledge and skills on the underlying knowledge of clinical skills, increase an awareness and understanding of emerging basic and clinical science; and provide opportunities for dialogue and debate with peers and experts of all medical specialties. These activities will further physician self-study and reflection on one’s clinical practice to promote and support changes in physician practice behaviors as necessary to deliver appropriate and quality of care leading to improved patient health

Goals of SMA's CME Program

• To offer CME activities designed to fill identified gaps in knowledge and patient care as determined through multiple sources of needs assessment.
• To design and conduct CME activities which are comprehensive, innovative, and of high quality that clearly achieve the activity's stated learning objectives.
• To present independent CME activities which consist of objective, balanced, scientifically rigorous and evidence-based content for physicians and other health care professionals.
• To provide a CME experience that results in an increased awareness, enhanced practice performance, and ultimately improved patient outcomes.

Content Areas
Primary care and specialty physician-focused educational activities are developed from multiple sources of needs assessment including current and emerging advances in medical science, research, technology and clinical education help identify learner knowledge gaps. Activities are then designed to reduce gaps in practice performance by concentrating on changes in practice guidelines, new clinical evidence, emerging and prevalent disease states, and improved diagnosis and treatment strategies.

SMA’s new focus on advocacy, leadership, quality and professional identity is demonstrated throughout SMA’s educational activities culminating in expanded offerings in existing conferences, leadership training seminars, and web-based communities for greater communication and continuous learning pre- and post-activity. Professional development learning opportunities for furthering education in business and management arenas are also offered.

Target Audience
CME activities of the Southern Medical Association are planned and designed to meet the clinical, intellectual and practice-related needs of primary care and specialty physicians, and other members of the health care team.  The activities are open to both SMA members as well as non-members. Although the SMA membership territory officially includes 16 southern states and the District of Columbia, attendees are welcome from all U.S. states and abroad.   The audience is heterogeneous including numerous specialties, all practice sizes and settings and physicians in differing career stages.

Type of Activities
The SMA's premier activity is its annual scientific assembly. The Assembly features live clinical didactic lectures, panel discussions, interactive Q&A with faculty and audience participation, and oral and poster abstract.  Throughout the year live clinical conferences are held in selected locations and offer the physician an opportunity for additional interaction with colleagues and faculty.  A Learning through Teaching activity provides faculty with an opportunity to receive CME credit for the preparation and delivery of their lectures.

The SMA engages in jointly sponsored educational opportunities in accordance with the association's policy and procedures with regard to working with non-accredited entities. Through enduring materials physician’ may participate in independent learning activities for clinical and professional development delivered via the Internet.  Translating research into practice is achieved through the SMA's Southern Medical Journal, a peer-reviewed journal distributed monthly to members and available via subscription, with selected featured journal CME. Additionally, SMJ reviewers may receive credit for thorough and acceptable review of manuscripts.

Expected Results
Southern Medical Association expects participation in its CME activities to result in the physicians' improved competency and performance through application of enhanced medical knowledge, improved skills, better practice performance and overall ability to better provide the quality and appropriateness of care expected by patients. Continuous assessment of results is achieved by means of evaluation and outcomes of the activities consisting of, but not limited to, individual speaker and overall activity evaluations of participants, pre- and post-tests designed to evaluate physician competency and performance, selected post-meeting outcome surveys to measure implementation of new learning and perceived improved patient health outcomes, and through member surveys to determine and measure the degree to which learners' needs were met and desired results were achieved. These data are used to continuously improve future activities and the overall CME program.

Reviewed and Approved by the Coordinating Committee on Education – 7.15.2008.