AMA PRA Category 1 credit™ is issued by an accredited provider to physicians who participate in their certified activities and claim credit. Category 1 credit is provided for activities that meet all the requirements prescribed by the AMA. They are formal, pre-planned activities including live activities, and enduring materials.

AMA PRA Category 2 credit is activities that provide valuable learning for individual physicians that are not designated for Category 1 credit. They might include such activities as unstructured online searching, reading authoritative medical literature, or self-assessment activities.

For a more complete explanation, you may consult:
www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/455/ama_pra_system.pdf

In Massachusetts, a majority of CPD* credit must be directly related to the primary area(s) of a physician’s practice, and must include two hours studying the Board of Registration in Medicine’s regulations.

Massachusetts Risk Management Study:

• Category 1 – Formal, pre-planned activities that focus on medical malpractice prevention such as risk identification, loss prevention, and patient safety. Those areas may include medical ethics, quality assurance, medical-legal issues, patient relations, utilization review, and non-economic aspects of practice management.
• Category 2 – Activities that that provide valuable learning and address medical malpractice prevention but are not designated as formal, pre-planned activities. Those might include participation on peer review committees in quality assurance or medical ethics.

For a more complete explanation, you may consult: FAQs about Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

*CPD was formerly known as Continuing Medical Education (CME)

Risk management study is a self-claimed activity. This means you should maintain a record of the activities you complete that meet the requirement for risk management study.

Any physician licensed in Massachusetts must earn risk management credit during each licensing cycle.

After completion of an on-line activity, a certificate is sent to your email address on file. Copies may be obtained by logging into your account and clicking “certificate options.”

At this time CRICO offers AMA PRA Category 1 credits™. The Massachusetts Board of Nursing website describes how you may use participation in an activity that provides CME credit for license renewal in their frequently asked questions.