April 19, 2018

What is Joint Accreditation and why is it important?

COPE began as a service for ARBO’s member boards to ensure the consistency and quality of optometric continuing education. The COPE accreditation program reduced the cost, redundancy, and confusion of trying to sort out the requirements of each individual state board.  Over time, the COPE accreditation program has evolved to meet the highest standards for independent, defensible continuing education. In 2017, in response to a resolution passed by ARBO’s member boards, the COPE program achieved the milestone of becoming substantially equivalent to ACCME, the gold standard in healthcare continuing education. Now, in 2018 another milestone has been reached.  COPE has joined into the Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing EducationTM collaborative.  This accomplishment was also directed by a resolution passed by ARBO’s member boards.

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education offers organizations the opportunity to be simultaneously accredited to provide medical, nursing, pharmacy, optometry, and PA continuing education through a single, unified application process, and set of accreditation standards. Joint Accreditation is the first and only program in the world offering this benefit.  A leading model for interprofessional collaborative practice, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education establishes the standards for education providers to deliver quality, independent, accredited interprofessional continuing education (IPCE).

Launched in 2009, Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education began as a collaboration of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).  The American Academy of PAs (AAPA), and the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry’s Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (ARBO/COPE) joined the collaborative in January 2018.

Interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) is when members from two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes (ACCME, ACPE, ANCC, 2015).  Since its introduction, interprofessional continuing education has been shown to improve practice and patient outcomes. Jointly accredited CE providers can identify opportunities for team-based education through practice gap analysis and determine how team-based education can support healthcare priorities at much higher levels than the individual level including institutional, community, national, and/or international level.

Why Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional CE Is Important

High Standards

Benefits and Opportunities

Given the breadth, depth, quality, and diversity the COPE program has achieved, ARBO has provided its member boards with a tool that should be considered the required standard for all optometric continuing education.


*Much of the informational content was taken from the Joint Accreditation website: http://www.jointaccreditation.org