Update August 18, 2026: We have covered the current status of CME for medical training events in a new article.
Continuing Medical Education (CME)—regular professional training—is essential for ensuring that doctors stay informed about the latest scientific findings on diseases and treatment approaches. What is learned at conferences and workshops can then be applied to patient treatment and consultation.
Every doctor must therefore provide proof of regular training to receive a medical association certificate after five years. Failure to meet this obligation can lead to severe sanctions, ranging from financial penalties to the revocation of a medical license. Accurate and timely transmission of earned points is therefore crucial, as the doctor's point account should be up to date before the five-year period expires.
To ensure this, the organizer must first have the conference certified as a training event by the responsible state medical association. If the application arrives too late or if a sponsor influences the scientific program, certification will not be granted. The conference can still take place, but attendance will not earn any CME points.
Each event also falls into a specific category that must be stated on the application. This determines how many CME points a doctor is credited for attending.
Who was there and for how long?
Once the application is successful, the organizer should consider how to record the CME points. This is often one of the biggest challenges, especially for events with many participants. To keep the process running smoothly, check-in should be as fast as possible and not take up more time than the training itself, which is ultimately the priority.
The easiest way to verify attendance on-site is to go completely electronic. All you need is conference management software and handheld scanners.
The software ensures that every doctor can provide their 15-digit Uniform Continuing Education Number (EFN) alongside their personal details during online registration.
During on-site check-in, the system verifies that the registration fee has been paid, and the participant receives their name badge, which includes a barcode.
To receive CME points for attending the conference, the barcode must be scanned upon arrival. Because the number of points depends on the duration of attendance, participants are scanned again when leaving. Only those who were present throughout the day earn the full CME points.
For multi-day events, both scans are performed daily.
In addition, medical conferences often feature special training sessions, such as hands-on workshops, where further CME points can be earned. Therefore, participants must be scanned again before entering the room where the course takes place.
Very important: No CME points can be awarded without a scan. Whether someone actually attended the event can only be verified by scanning the barcode. It is best to remind your participants on-site and on the conference website not to forget to scan.
The scan ensures that the EFN appears on the electronic reporting form's participant list, confirming that the doctor attended the event. The form is then transmitted to the Electronic Information Distributor (EIV), the central server of the German Medical Association. This server later distributes the data to the state medical associations, where, in the final step, all CME points collected during the conference are credited to the doctor's personal account.
After the event, every doctor receives a paper certificate of attendance, which serves as proof for tax purposes. To ensure no one has to wait for it to arrive by mail, we recommend making the certificate available for download in the personal area of the conference website after the event. Alternatively, some organizers use self-service stations where participants can print their certificates on the last day of the conference and check their total CME points.
Scanning instead of sticking
For doctors, proving their training involves very little effort, as they only need to register with their EFN before the conference and show their name badge at check-in for each session. The scanning process itself takes only a few seconds per participant.
It also means less work for the organizer, as paper lists—which previously required barcode stickers to be applied and then mailed to the medical association—are no longer needed, and the earned CME points are credited to the doctor's account promptly. This also has the advantage that doctors do not have to constantly reorder new stickers.
International point collection
Regulations for medical training vary by country.
For example, the continuing education regulations for doctors based in Switzerland require at least 80 CME points to be collected annually so that a continuing education diploma can be issued after three years.
Even here, there is no way around prior certification of the conference by a medical society.
The main difference compared to German conferences only becomes apparent when recording the collected credits. So far, there is no option for these to be automatically transferred to the point account via scan. Swiss doctors must still take care of logging their training activities themselves. To do this, the CME points shown on the certificate of attendance are entered into the online training log along with the event details.
In addition to attending conferences in one's own country, a training stay abroad can also be worthwhile. If an event abroad is certified for earning points, the CME points collected there are readily recognized by local medical associations.
We would be happy to discuss in detail, using your planned event as an example, how Converia can support you in recording CME points.
