How Do Physicians Track CME Credits?

Which system holds your official continuing medical education (CME) record depends on which governing body you answer to. The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), and state medical boards each run their own platform. A credit in one does not automatically appear in the others. Know yours.

What to keep

When you complete an accredited CME activity, keep the proof you receive. The CFPC requires a minimum of six years and recommends uploading an electronic copy to Mainpro+ when you enter the activity. California requires four years at minimum for all physicians, with records showing the course title, dates, length, sponsoring organization, and accrediting organization. For Royal College fellows, ABIM diplomates, ABFM diplomates, and Texas licensees, the governing bodies' pages name no specific period. Six years is the longest stated minimum.

The five portals

Mainpro+ is where CFPC-member family physicians log continuing professional development. You enter activities yourself, or a program organizer can submit credits to the College on your behalf; provider-entered credits take a few weeks to appear. A six-week grace period follows each five-year cycle.

The CFPC selects members for random audits. Members who miss the cycle requirement enter a two-year remedial period, and use of CFPC Special Designations is suspended until requirements are met; continued non-compliance may result in membership discontinuation.

My MOC replaced MAINPORT in August 2024 as the Royal College's platform for specialists. Most Royal College fellows have a five-year Maintenance of Certification (MOC) cycle. File by January 31. For Section 3 (feedback and improvement) credit, you self-report your own participation; the accredited provider does not file on your behalf.

CME Passport is ACCME's free application. You use it to see the credits accredited providers have reported for you; you cannot self-report to it. Credits appear only after a provider uploads learner data into PARS (the Program and Activity Reporting System), and that upload is optional. When registering for any accredited activity, ask whether the provider reports to the ACCME, then consent and supply your month and day of birth, state of licensure, and sometimes your licence number. ACCME says all state medical boards can see your credit data there; 17 use PARS for relicensure, some as their primary source.

MyABFM Portfolio (portfolio.theabfm.org) is where diplomates of the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) track their specific requirements. The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has its own Physician Portal. It is for internal medicine diplomates. Through a collaboration with ACCME, ABIM board-certified physicians can earn MOC points from thousands of accredited CME activities; the boards' pages do not describe how credit data moves between CME Passport and each portal.

CE Broker is the platform the Texas Medical Board (TMB) mandates for all licensees with continuing education requirements. Full enforcement applies to renewals on or after September 1, 2026. You self-report. A licensee without a Complete status cannot open the TMB renewal system; it is a hard gate, not an advisory check. Set up a free Basic account at cebroker.com using a personal email address, not a work one.

Using CME Passport is optional in the US. You can keep your own records and produce them directly to a board or certifier when asked. ACCME does not require physicians to use it.

California does not operate its own portal. The Medical Board uses ACCME's PARS and CME Passport for verification; you certify compliance at renewal under penalty of perjury, and the Board runs an annual audit of physicians who certified compliance. Failing to provide verification when asked is unprofessional conduct and may result in enforcement action. Keep California records for four years.

Where people lose track

Accredited activities are the straightforward part. A provider files the record, or you do. Non-certified and self-directed learning is where the gaps form, because no system generates that record for you.

Mainpro+ includes a non-certified stream for activities like journal reading. You self-log these. No provider reports this for you. When the logging does not happen at the time, it does not happen at all.

There is also a timing gap. ACCME asks providers to submit activity data to PARS within 30 days; PARS then validates your identifying data against board records, and a mismatch is rejected and the provider must resubmit. Give the provider your full identifying information at registration to avoid that delay.

For many boards, MOC activities must be completed by December 31 to count toward requirements due that year. Providers have until March 31 two years later to submit late data. A credit you earn will not appear in your CME Passport account until the provider submits it. Your pre-deadline balance is a floor.

Where MD Progress fits

MD Progress is unaccredited, self-directed learning. Time spent on it can be logged as Mainpro+ non-certified continuing professional development; you enter the activity yourself.

For Royal College fellows it is Section 2: Individual Learning, where educational content review earns 0.5 credits per hour to a maximum of 30 a year. In the US it is AMA PRA Category 2 Credit, self-claimed and documented by you, which no organization certifies. MD Progress's tracking tools let you record these activities, set progress markers against your cycle requirements, and get reminders before deadlines arrive. It logs what you enter. It does not replace any official portal.

Best practices

Keep original certificates (digital or paper) at least as long as your board's audit window: six years for CFPC, four for California.
Log self-directed learning when you do it, not months later.
Reconcile your running total against your cycle's minimum before the deadline, not the week of.
If a credit needs to satisfy two requirements at once, confirm both bodies accept it before claiming it.

What to keep

The five portals

Where people lose track

Where MD Progress fits

Best practices

Sources