Every certified CME activity has to display two statements, word for word and as two separate paragraphs: the ACCME accreditation statement and the AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ designation statement. Enter your provider name, credit amount and learning format below and this free tool builds both of them — with the correct singular or plural, the italics, and the superscript trademark symbol — ready to copy straight into your brochure, syllabus or certificate.
The organization that holds ACCME accreditation. Use its exact legal name.
Decimals are fine. Exactly 1 gives the singular Credit™.
Both paragraphs must appear, separately and word for word.
Riverside Medical Education is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Riverside Medical Education designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Copy formatted keeps the italics and the superscript ™ when you paste into Word or Google Docs. Copy plain text keeps the ™ character but drops the markup, for systems that only accept plain text.
The ACCME and the AMA require both statements verbatim, as two separate paragraphs. Merging them, rewording them, or writing “Credit(s)” instead of the correct singular or plural is one of the most common findings in an accreditation review.
Identifies who is accredited by the ACCME to provide CME, and — for a jointly provided activity — names the non-accredited partner as well.
[Provider] is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
States the learning format, the maximum credit available, and the physician's obligation to claim only what they earned.
[Provider] designates this live activity for a maximum of 2.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
They are two paragraphs, not one. Reviewers look for both, in full, visually separated, with nothing added between them. Do not merge them into a single block of text, and do not abbreviate the ACCME's full name in the accreditation statement of a directly provided activity.
Your accredited organization plans, implements and presents the activity by itself. The accreditation statement names one organization.
Use when: your own faculty and staff run the whole activity, with no outside partner involved in the education.
An accredited provider partners with one or more non-accredited organizations. The statement names both, and must say the activity was planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the ACCME.
Use when: a society, hospital, or education company co-develops the content with you. The accredited provider remains responsible for compliance.
The format you pick goes straight into the designation statement — “designates this live activity”, “designates this enduring material”, and so on. Choose the one that matches how learners actually engage with the activity.
| Format | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Live activity | A course, conference, workshop or webinar delivered at a scheduled time, in person or online. |
| Enduring material | A recorded or written activity available on demand over a period of time — a recorded webinar, a monograph, an online module. |
| Journal-based CME activity | An article in a peer-reviewed journal paired with a learner assessment. |
| Test-item writing activity | Physicians write and review test items for a certifying board examination. |
| Manuscript review activity | Physicians perform peer review of manuscripts submitted to a journal. |
| PI CME activity | A structured performance-improvement project with measurement, intervention and re-measurement. |
| Internet point-of-care activity | Self-directed searching of online resources to answer a clinical question arising in practice. |
Italicise the words "AMA PRA Category 1 Credit" or "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits"
Set the ™ as a superscript, and leave it upright rather than italic
Put the ™ immediately after the final letter, with no space
Use the singular "Credit" only when the activity is designated for exactly 1 credit
Keep the two statements as two separate paragraphs
Write "Credit(s)" — the parenthetical form is not permitted
Merge the accreditation and designation statements into one paragraph
Paraphrase, shorten or "tidy up" either statement
Drop the ™ because your design software loses the superscript
Round 1.5 credits up to 2 just to make the sentence read better
Convert activity duration into the credit amount to put in the statement above.
Work out continuing education units from contact hours.
Calculate CPD points for non-CME professional development.
Generate the rest of the certificate text to sit around these statements.
The credit designation statement is the sentence that tells physicians how much credit an activity carries. It reads: "[Provider] designates this [learning format] for a maximum of [number] AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity." It must appear alongside — but separate from — the accreditation statement, and the phrase "AMA PRA Category 1 Credit" is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association, so it is italicised and followed immediately by a superscript ™ with no space before it.
Direct providership means the ACCME-accredited organization plans, implements and presents the activity itself. Joint providership means an accredited provider works with one or more non-accredited partners — a medical society, a hospital, a commercial education company — and takes responsibility for the whole activity. The wording of the accreditation statement changes: a jointly provided activity must name both the accredited provider and the non-accredited partner, and must state that the activity was planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the ACCME.
Yes. Both the accreditation statement and the credit designation statement are required verbatim and may not be paraphrased, shortened or combined into a single paragraph. Reviewers check the exact text, the separation of the two paragraphs, and the trademark formatting. You may add your own surrounding copy, but the two statements themselves must be reproduced word for word.
Use the singular "AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™" only when the activity is designated for exactly 1 credit. Every other amount — 0.5, 1.5, 2, 20 — takes the plural "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™". Never write "Credit(s)": the AMA does not permit the parenthetical form, and it is a frequent audit finding. This generator picks the right form automatically from the credit amount you enter.
The words "AMA PRA Category 1 Credit" or "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits" are set in italics, and the ™ symbol that follows is superscript, not italic, with no space between the final "s" and the symbol. Use the "Copy formatted" button above to carry that formatting straight into Word, Google Docs or your certificate designer — plain-text copies keep the ™ character but lose the italics and the superscript.
The AMA recognises seven formats for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit: live activity, enduring material, journal-based CME activity, test-item writing activity, manuscript review activity, PI CME activity, and internet point-of-care activity. Pick the one that matches how the learner engages with the activity — a recorded webinar that stays available on demand is an enduring material, while a scheduled webinar delivered at a set time is a live activity.
Both statements must be disclosed to learners before they engage with the activity — typically in the activity brochure, the registration page, the syllabus and the certificate itself. Many providers also print them on the back of the certificate or in the footer, which is fine as long as both paragraphs appear in full and remain separate.
No. This wording is specific to ACCME-accredited CME and AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Nursing CE, pharmacy CPE, psychology CE and general CPD each have their own accrediting bodies and their own mandatory statements. For those, work out the credit amount with our CEU or CPD calculators and use your accreditor's published wording.
Getting the wording right once is the easy part. CertFusion locks the accreditation and credit designation statements onto every certificate in a batch — correct singular or plural, correct formatting, on all of them — then emails each physician a verifiable copy. Nobody re-types it, so nobody fails an audit over a missing paragraph.
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