What is ACMEC?

The Ada County Medical Education Consortium (ACMEC) was formed in 1971 to deliver accredited continuing medical education (CME) in the Treasure Valley.  Their mission statement is: "To provide quality CME to Treasure Valley physicians in an effort to increase the quality of patient care."  The original partners included Saint Alphonsus RMC, St Luke's RMC and the Ada County Medical Society.  The first year, some 38 hours of CME were recorded.

Today, ACMEC has been expanded to include full membership to the VA Medical Center and to St. Alphonsus in Nampa.  The latter resulted in a name change to Ada Canyon Medical Education Consortium, Inc.

While ACMEC sponsors some statewide programming in cardiology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, anesthesiology, et al, the focus of ACMEC continues to be education of  primary care providers in the Treasure Valley.  Four weekly grand rounds and four weekly tumor boards are offered between representative institutions.  In 2010 ACMEC sponsored or co-sponsored 1,000 hours of Category 1 CME, recording over 10,000 physician hours.


Obtaining continuing medical education has always been a challenge for Idaho physicians; cost of the courses, lost practice time, travel expenses and long distances have made CME expensive, and for some practitioner's impossible.  Videotapes, journals, and the Internet have helped.  Each year, the utilization of the Internet for CME rises dramatically.  While webinars and other similar resource help meet the need, ACMEC's surveys of the 1200-plus physicians maintained on the database indicate preference is still for a live presentation that allows for personal interaction.  ACMEC's long-range planning includes both maintenance of weekly rounds and he availability of electronically delivered CME. 


A bi-anual needs assessment establishes a curriculum for physician's CME.  ACMEC prioritizes identified physician top requests through sub-specialty input and match needs with speakers that are academically qualified to present.  A library of accredited programming is maintained on the ACMEC Web site.  


ACMEC is governed by a physician board appointment by the chief of staff of member institutions and the Ada County Medical Society Board.  ACMEC reorganized in 1997 into a nonprofit corporation.  William Bourquard, MD, a Boise pediatrician was elected as president.  John Mohr, M.D., serves as physician adviser.  David Mueller is the director of ACMEC and Marie Chester the administrative assistant.   Mr. Mueller and Ms Chester have spent the last 23 years on enhancing program design and geographic expansion.