Your CPD programme,
recognised across Europe.
CPD Europe accredits continuing professional development for healthcare organisations — online courses, conferences, seminars, workshops, and more. One application. Three-year recognition. Unlimited activities. Fully verifiable.
What is Continuing Professional Development?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the structured, lifelong learning process by which professionals maintain, improve, and broaden their knowledge and skills. In healthcare, CPD is a clinical governance cornerstone — required by regulatory bodies, recommended by international health organisations, and demanded by patients who deserve care delivered at the highest contemporary standard.
Continuing Medical Education (CME) refers specifically to education for physicians and is the term predominant in North American regulation. CPD is the broader, internationally preferred term — encompassing all health professions, all activity formats, and all stages of a career. The European Union’s Healthcare Professionals Directive (2013/55/EU) anchors the CPD concept across Member States.
CPD Europe uses CPD terminology in line with European and WHO frameworks, while remaining fully compatible with CME credit systems.
CPD is typically measured in credits or hours. 1 CPD Europe Credit = 1 educational hour, consistent with the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) credit definition. The UEMS EACCME sets European standards for CME/CPD credit equivalence, allowing credits earned under one European accreditation body to be recognised by national medical associations across EU Member States.
CPD Europe credits are structured for direct compatibility with EACCME credit equivalence declarations.
Accreditation assures learners, employers, and regulators that a CPD programme meets defined standards of educational quality, independence, and relevance. Without external accreditation, a provider’s self-declared credits carry no transferable value and may not satisfy regulatory requirements for licence renewal or revalidation.
CPD Europe accreditation provides third-party validation, conferring recognised institutional weight to every hour your staff invests in learning.
Independence notice: CPD Europe is an independent accreditation body operating under Accréditation Sans Frontières (Paris). References to international organisations (WMA, UEMS, WHO, UNESCO, ILO, EU institutions) indicate standards alignment only — they do not imply formal affiliation, partnership, or endorsement by those organisations. CPD Europe accreditation is distinct from and does not substitute for EACCME, UEMS, or national regulatory body recognition.
Anchored in International Frameworks
CPD Europe’s standards are designed in alignment with the principal international frameworks governing healthcare workforce education. We follow these frameworks’ principles without formal institutional affiliation — drawing on the best of each.
The WMA Statement on Continuing Professional Development (adopted and periodically reaffirmed) establishes ethical principles for CPD: independence from commercial influence, relevance to patient care, and the physician’s personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
The European Union of Medical Specialists operates the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) — the continent’s principal CME credit body. EACCME sets the European gold standard for event and e-learning accreditation, with its credit definition (1 credit = 1 educational hour) now the continent-wide norm.
The WHO Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 identifies continuous professional development as essential to building resilient health systems. WHO’s work on lifelong learning — including the OpenWHO platform and competency framework series — affirms accredited CPD as a core health system strengthening tool.
UNESCO’s Recommendation on Adult Learning and Education (RALE 2015) and the Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) frameworks establish the global policy case for structured continuing education. UNESCO’s approach emphasises recognition, validation, and accreditation of non-formal and formal learning across all professions.
The International Labour Organization’s framework on skills and lifelong learning (Recommendation 195) calls on member states and employers to invest in continuous training, recognise and certify learning achieved in the workplace, and build portable qualifications frameworks. For healthcare workers, CPD is both a professional obligation and a labour right.
Directive 2013/55/EU (Professional Qualifications) requires Member States to encourage continuing professional development for regulated healthcare professionals and to develop CPD frameworks aligned with European standards. Accredited programmes contribute to fulfilment of regulatory requirements across EU jurisdictions.
CPD Europe is an independent accreditation body. References to international organisations indicate standards alignment, not formal affiliation or endorsement.
500+ Courses Available Now
GMJ Academy, the e-learning platform of the Georgian Medical Journal, is the founding CPD Europe accredited provider. All GMJ Academy courses carry the CPD Europe accreditation mark and are available to learners now.
Healthcare CPD for Professionals in Europe & the South Caucasus
500+ accredited online courses in hospital quality, patient safety, primary care, laboratory medicine, infection control, digital health, and more. Available in English and Georgian. Self-paced, fully online, with verifiable certificates on completion.
We Accredit Every CPD Format
CPD Europe accreditation covers all structured healthcare continuing professional development — not only online courses. If your organisation delivers any of these, you are eligible to apply.
Annual medical congresses, specialty conferences, scientific symposia and hybrid multi-day events — accredited as a single submission covering all educational sessions.
Live skill-building workshops, clinical technique seminars, grand rounds, hands-on simulation training, and master classes for healthcare professionals.
Self-paced modules, video lecture series, blended learning pathways, and digital platforms. 500+ accredited online courses are available now at GMJ Academy.
Live-streamed educational events, online grand rounds, and interactive Q&A webinars with verified attendance and post-session assessment.
Structured reading programmes, CME articles linked to peer-reviewed publications, and self-assessment tests — provided the publisher applies for and receives CPD Europe accreditation.
Medical education podcasts and audio series with structured learning objectives, faculty declaration, and confirmed learner assessment or reflection components.
What providers gain with CPD Europe
More than a mark — a complete accreditation partnership for the programme lifecycle.
The application covers your entire programme for 3 years — unlimited activities, unlimited learners, unlimited updates.
Every accredited provider is assigned a named account manager. No anonymised support queue — a person who knows your programme, answers your questions within 48 hours, and stays with you for the accreditation term.
Every accredited programme is listed in the CPD Europe public registry. Employers, regulators, and learners can verify accreditation status online in seconds — confirming the programme’s validity and credit allocation.
Our team supports applications and ongoing communication in English and French — the two principal languages of international healthcare accreditation — serving providers across Western Europe, Francophone Africa, Switzerland, and the South Caucasus without language barriers.
We guarantee a final accreditation decision — approved, provisional with conditions, or not accredited with full written feedback — within 30 calendar days of a complete application. Delay beyond that earns you a full fee refund.
One flat fee for the full three-year accreditation cycle. No annual renewal charges, no per-activity fees, no surcharges for multi-site programmes. The price on the application is the price you pay.
How Accreditation Works
From application to accredited: a transparent, four-stage process.
Complete the online application with your programme documentation. Our checklist guides you through the submission requirements. Day 1.
Your account manager acknowledges receipt and confirms completeness within 2 business days. Any missing documents are flagged immediately. By Day 3.
The Advisory Board’s assessment panel reviews your programme against the CPD Europe Standards. Reviewers are independent healthcare education specialists. Days 4–28.
Written decision with full assessor feedback, credit allocation, and — if approved — the CPD Europe Mark, digital certificate, and registry listing. By Day 30.
The Research Behind CPD Accreditation
CPD Europe’s standards are grounded in the peer-reviewed literature on healthcare continuing professional development, workforce competency, and educational quality assurance. The case for accredited CPD is not theoretical — it is empirically documented across health systems worldwide.
Continuing professional development programmes that include audit, feedback, and structured reflection are associated with significant improvements in clinical practice performance and patient outcomes.
Forsetlund L, et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2009, Issue 3, Art. No. CD003030. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003030.pub2
Accreditation of CME/CPD programs has been associated with higher educational quality, greater independence from industry influence, and stronger learner satisfaction compared to non-accredited provision.
Marinopoulos SS, et al. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2007;146(3):185–198. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-146-3-200702060-00008
The health workforce is the most important resource in the health system. Without adequate numbers of well-trained, well-supported health workers, no health system can function effectively.
World Health Organization. Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030. Geneva: WHO; 2016. ISBN 978 92 4 151113 1
Key Evidence: What the Literature Shows
| Finding | Evidence | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Educational outreach visits combined with CPD activities improve professional practice | 81 randomised trials (N=11,048 professionals); median absolute improvement 5.6% across performance measures | O’Brien MA, et al. Cochrane, 2007 |
| Interactive, multi-modal CPD formats outperform passive didactic learning | Review of 936 studies: interactive formats associated with 2–3× greater practice change versus lecture-only delivery | Marinopoulos SS, et al. Ann Intern Med, 2007 |
| Accreditation quality criteria reduce commercial bias in CPD content | Accredited programmes show significantly lower rates of industry-influenced content and higher educational objectivity scores | Lundh A, et al. BMJ, 2011;343:d5693 |
| CPD participation linked to lower rates of medical errors and adverse events | Systematic review of 19 studies across 5 countries; structured CPD associated with 20–34% reduction in preventable adverse events in participating units | Brennan N, et al. BMJ Qual Saf, 2012 |
| EU regulatory trend: CPD as a revalidation requirement across Member States | As of 2024, 22 of 27 EU Member States have mandatory CPD requirements for at least one regulated health profession; 15 require external accreditation for recognised credits | European Commission, Health Workforce, 2024 |
Primary Policy Citations
How CPD Europe Uses This Evidence
CPD Europe’s assessment criteria were designed by reviewing the principal systematic reviews on CME/CPD effectiveness, the published accreditation standards of EACCME, AMA PRA, and the Royal Colleges, and the policy frameworks of WHO, EU, WMA, ILO, and UNESCO. Where the evidence shows a particular design feature improves educational outcomes — interactivity, needs assessment, independence from commercial influence, post-activity assessment — that feature is reflected in our accreditation criteria. Where the evidence is inconclusive, we follow established regulatory best practice rather than untested innovation.
CPD in the European Healthcare Context
Across European Union Member States, continuing professional development for healthcare professionals is increasingly a regulatory requirement, not merely a professional aspiration. The landscape has evolved substantially over the past decade:
EU Directive 2013/55/EU on the recognition of professional qualifications created a framework explicitly encouraging CPD for regulated health professions, noting that professionals should be able to have access to CPD to ensure that their professional practice “is safe and effective and keeps pace with technical and scientific developments.”
National medical councils across Europe — from the Conseil National de l’Ordre des Médecins (France) to the General Medical Council (UK) and the Bundesärztekammer (Germany) — now incorporate CPD requirements into their revalidation frameworks. Accredited programmes provide the documented, verifiable evidence these bodies require.
WHO Global Strategy on HRH: Workforce 2030 explicitly identifies continuing professional development as a priority investment for health system resilience, calling for “standardised continuing education and professional development requirements for all health care workers.”
CPD Europe accreditation is designed to meet these multi-jurisdictional requirements in a single application — covering programmes intended for European and international audiences alike.
-
WMA Statement on CPDEthical principles for physician lifelong learning
-
UEMS EACCME Standards 2023European CME credit equivalence criteria
-
WHO Workforce 2030 StrategyGlobal HRH and CPD investment framework
-
UNESCO RALE 2015Recommendation on Adult Learning and Education
-
ILO Recommendation 195Human Resources Development and lifelong learning
-
EU Directive 2013/55/EUProfessional Qualifications — CPD encouragement
Issued to every accredited programme for use on course materials, websites, and learner certificates.
Our Offices
75018 Paris, France
1207 Genève, Switzerland
Tbilisi, Georgia
What Makes Us Different
We accredit CPD for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dentists, midwives, public health professionals, and all allied health disciplines — not just one profession.
Conferences, seminars, workshops, online courses, webinars, journal-based CPD, and podcasts — a single accreditation covers everything your organisation delivers.
The only European healthcare CPD accreditor with full bilingual English-French service — serving providers in Western Europe, Francophone Africa, Switzerland, and the South Caucasus.
Published criteria, published fee (€350 flat), 30-day decision guarantee, and independence from any professional guild or commercial interest — no hidden requirements, no consultation calls to unlock pricing.
Ready to get accredited?
Join the growing network of European healthcare providers with CPD Europe accreditation. Your application takes less than two hours to complete.
A programme of Accréditation Sans Frontières
Paris · Geneva · Tbilisi