Credits
To achieve compliance, a Radiologist or Radiation Oncologist is required to earn at a minimum:
• 50 minimum credits per year, plus clinical audit
• 250 minimum credits per five year cycle, plus clinical audit
If the target for any category is not met in one year, the deficit must be made up the following year. If a practitioner is not compliant with the scheme for two consecutive years, the Faculty’s CPD verification process is triggered.
The following are the recognised categories:
External (Maintenance of Knowledge and Skills): 20 minimum per year
Internal (Practice Evaluation & Development): 20 minimum per year
Personal Learning: 5 credits minimum per year
Research or Teaching: 2 credits minimum per year desirable
Audit (Mandatory, annual minimum 10 credits): Radiologists and Radiation Oncologists must pursue 1 audit project each year.
Credits will generally be calculated as one credit for one hour of activity.
Breakdown of credits by area
External: Maintenance of Knowledge and Skills (20 credits per year)
Events/activities accredited by Training Bodies that meet educational standards (in person or virtually)
International/ National meetings
College/Society meetings
Organised training secondments Courses accredited by Training Body Medically related advanced degrees
Online Courses
Examples of activities:
-Attendance at Radiology or Radiation-Oncology or management courses with prior CPD approval from the Faculty, RCR, ECR, or the relevant national professional authority or its delegated Radiological specialty body, or at meetings on the pre-approved list published by the Faculty.
-Organised training secondments to another centre to work with recognised specialists or managers in order to learn new skills (4 credits a day, maximum of 16 credits per year).
-Attending courses leading to a postgraduate Diploma (maximum of 30 credits) or for a Masters or Doctoral degree (maximum 50 credits).
Internal: Practice Evaluation & Development (20 credits per year)
Activities that develop and improve the quality of clinical practice
Clinical Radiological Multi-disciplinary meetings
Hospital Study Days
Grand Rounds
Clinical clubs
Morbidity and Mortality Meetings
Clinical Risk Meetings
Case Presentations
Peer Review Groups
Discrepancy Meetings
Practitioners will be expected to present an aspect of their practice during one of the above activities within the five year cycle.
Examples of activities:
-Formal local hospital educational activities e.g. grand rounds, regular organized small group teaching activities, journal clubs, clinical audit meetings etc
-Clinical meetings/clubs that evaluate care pathways and develop practice
-Meetings that examine adverse events & institute action to remedy systemic faults, e.g. critical incident analysis & morbidity & mortality meetings
-Organised training secondments to learn new skills with specialists/ managers in the practitioner’s own place of work. A formal programme & timetable are required with prior clearly-outlined educational goals & assessment of achievement. 4 credits per day with a maximum of 16 credits per year.
-Activities related to the organisation or review of Radiological services, e.g. Head of Department and Clinical Unit meetings
-Other activities, e.g. Complaints, Ethics, Infection Control, Therapeutics, Root cause
-Other clinical governance and evaluation of care activities (e.g. Accreditation meetings or team participation)
Personal Learning (5 credits per year)
Journals
Journal clubs
E-Learning
Examples of activities:
-Participation in self directed education, training or assessment activities (e.g. journal reading, researching clinical information through audio/video tapes and the internet etc)
– Learning or updating computer skills. A formal programme of training is required (An annual maximum of 10 credits may be claimed with 1 credit per half day session).
– Self directed learning. This includes reading books, journals etc. and using audio-visual and computer-based programs (1 credit per hour may be claimed up to a maximum of 50 credits per 5-year cycle).
-Participation in professional development workshops/courses e.g. train the trainer, coaching, management, project and risk management skills etc.
-Participation in non medically related professional development programmes e.g. MBA, Diplomas leadership etc
-Volunteer or outreach activities
-Participation in structured and small group learning – e.g. journal clubs, problem based groups
Research or Teaching (2 credits per year desirable)
Accredited Postgraduate Trainer
Lectures
Examiner for Postgraduate Training Body
Publishing articles
Poster presentation
National Standards Development
Question setting
Examples of activities
-Preparation and delivery of formal lecture or seminar to Radiology peers at a national or international scientific meeting (5 credits per presentation for first presentation of a topic only)
-Presentation of a paper or a poster at a national or international meeting (3 credits for the first author, 1 credit for all other authors).
-Presentation to other health professionals or community groups (1 credit per presentation) -Publication of a Radiology / medical book (50 credits)
– Publication in a refereed journal, a chapter in a Radiology /medical book, or a patient information booklet (15 credits/item)
-Authorship of a full paper in a recognized peer-reviewed medical or scientific journal or book chapter (6 credits for the first author and the corresponding author and 3 credits for all other authors).
-Authorship of a full paper in a recognized non-peer-reviewed medical or scientific journal (up to 2 credits per paper for the first author only).
-Authorship or editorship of a book (15 credits for each author or editor).
-Authorship of a case report in a recognized peer-reviewed medical or scientific journal (3 credits for the first author only).
-Audio-visual display at an accredited national or international meeting (3 credits for the first author only).
-Editing or refereeing a paper or report in a recognized peer-reviewed medical or scientific journal or assessing a grant application (1 credit for each paper or grant reviewed).
-Refereeing a Masters or Doctoral thesis (up to 3 credits per thesis).
-Participation as an investigator in a clinical trial / research project (5 credits/trial)
-Supervision of research programmes towards higher degrees (3 credits for MCh, 5 credits for MD)
-Participation in training hospital inspections
-Participation in the mentoring and counseling of Radiology trainees Completion of assessment documents for Radiology trainees.
-Other research activities (e.g. Peer Review Panel, Research Ethics Committee, grant proposal assessment, expert opinion report)
-Participation in the development of clinical guidelines or standards at national or international level
Audit (one audit project per year)
Clinical Audit is a quality improvement process that seeks to enhance patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change. A key component of valid clinical audit is that performance is reviewed (or audited) to ensure that what should be done, is being done, and if not it provides a framework to enable improvements to be made.
Audit is recognized as having three elements:
(1)Measurement – measuring a specific element of clinical practice
(2) Comparison – comparing results with the recognised standard (in circumstances where comparison is possible)
(3) Evaluation – reflecting on outcome of audit and changing practice accordingly
-Activities related to analysing patient and/or department outcomes
-Activities related to patient satisfaction surveys
Examples of acceptable clinical audit include:
• Measurement of individual compliance with guidelines protocols (one per year)
• Double reading
• Simulator training (Interventional Radiology, etc)
• Skills analysis
• Department/practice audit
• Directly Observed Procedures (DOPS)
• Discrepancy meetings
• Individual Practice review
• Evaluation of individual risk incidents/complaints
• Patient satisfaction
• Self assessment
• Peer review
• Work Site Visits
The requirement is 1 Audit project per year, which should be entered on MedHub as 12 credits where one credit = one hour of activity. Please note that although activities such as discrepancy meetings and double reading can be counted towards Audit credits, it should be noted that the Medical Council’s intention is that these meetings do not replace formal audit activity but should prompt audit projects addressing personal, departmental or service deficits. Registrants are thus urged to engage in audits arising as above in addition to passively attending meetings.
For more detailed guidelines, please see PCS Handbook 2020