Continuing medical education

Customizing your CME request

With years of experience and thousands of continuing medical education (CME) conferences and cruises worldwide at our fingertips, we can create a tailor-made list of professional development opportunities for your needs based on location, area of interest, meeting sponsor and date range.

To request a customized list of opportunities, email info@oma.org.

Difference between CME and CPD

The terms continuing medical education (CME) and continuing professional development (CPD) are used interchangeably. 

However, CME activities are defined by the organizer or presenter and are generally clinically focused. Individual physicians can address their education needs through ongoing self-assessment.  

CPD includes components of CME, but has a broader focus. CPD also addresses the improvement of communication, practice management and leadership skills. Source: MD Dialogue 2012 Oct;8(3):29.

CPD can be broadly based, and flexible in content and delivery method — independent, online, small groups or traditional lecture-based presentations. 

Track your CPD

Physicians can track their CPD activities through one of the approved organizations below:

Disclaimer: The OMA makes no endorsements, warranties, or representations of any kind whatsoever regarding the information it provides to its members, and for the content discussed at any conference or seminar reported including all information, materials, discussions, presentations or any other such content discussed or distributed at such conference or seminar. 

Education resources

Ontario Medical Association

OMA Learns — This enhanced learning platform provides members with easy access to dynamic content and materials relevant to everyday practice. 

OMA Learns provides members the opportunity to improve their knowledge base on OHIP billing, practice efficiency, starting, running, and closing a practice, privacy and legal considerations, patient care management, and other topics. With the ability to navigate through the system and access all OMA Learns sessions at your convenience, you can learn what you want, at your own pace.

Canadian university offices of continuing medical education 

Accredited CPD providers have successfully applied to the Royal College or the Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME) and met defined accreditation standards. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada publishes contact information for the CME university departments. 

Family medicine 

College of Family Physicians of Canada, CPD events calendar — This website lists Mainpro-M1 and Mainpro-C events taking place in Canada. The database can be searched by date, credit type, keyword, or location. Programs are peer-reviewed to ensure content is educationally and scientifically valid, and that programs are developed and delivered in accordance with ethical standards. 

Ontario College of Family Physicians events calendar – This web page lists virtual and in-person events.

National specialty societies 

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada publishes a list of national specialty societies on its website. These organizations often list CME opportunities on their websites. 

The Canadian Medical Association publishes a list of affiliated societies and observer organizations on its website. These organizations often list CME opportunities on their websites. 

Other resources – Canada 

Canadian Medical Protective Association education and events — Most of the CMPA’s CPD programs receive Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons MOC credits and College of Family Physicians Mainpro credits.

Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences Centre for Continuing Professional Education — The centre offers a wide selection of courses, workshops, seminars, certificate and advanced diploma programs, and degree completion opportunities for health professionals. Flexible programming options, including distance education and evening and weekend programming, help physicians upgrade their skills on a part-time basis.

Other resources – International 

10 times: Medical and pharmaceutical conferences — This website lists medical meetings worldwide. The user can browse the database by date or country. 

Amaco Travel — This tour company based out of Australia combines medical professional development conferences with travel to unique locations. 

Canadian Medical Association conferences and events — This website lists conferences sponsored by the Canadian Medical Association. 

CESearchEngine — The events listed in this database can be filtered by format, live/seminars, new procedures, online, performance improvement, seminar, and webinar/webcast/video. 

CME Away — Sea Courses is a medical education company. They offer courses around the world, allowing physicians to combine learning with personal health breaks and rejuvenation time. The website lists land tours, ocean cruises, resorts and river cruises. 

CMX Travel & Meetings — This website lists events primarily taking place in Hawaii and California. 

Conference Alert 360 — This database on various international conferences can be searched by topic (medical sciences) and country. 

Conference Locate — This database can be filtered by country, city and sub-category. 

Conference Management Software (COMS) — This comprehensive conference management system was designed for academic and scientific events. The website can be searched by location. 

ConferencingNomads — This tour company is based out of Australia. 

Conal Conference Alerts — This database lists medical meetings worldwide, and is searchable by topic, country and city. Users can also perform advanced searches using a combination of date, country and/or search term. 

Continuing Education, Inc. – University at Sea — This tour company's cruises are listed by date, but can be searched by topic, sail date, region and cruise line. 

Doctors-on-tour — This tour company provides educational programs in relaxed environments around the world. 

eMedEvents — This website lists medical meetings worldwide, and offers an advanced search option where users can search by specialty, location and date. 

Jon Baines Tours — A specialist travel company curating medical, professional non-medical, and cultural study tours and cruises to destinations around the world. 

Kenes Group events calendar — This conference management company's database can be searched by location and date.

MCE Conferences — These CME opportunities are organized by primary health-care professionals without commercial support. 

Medical Events: Upcoming events — The database can be searched by event type, specialty, organizer, country, city and date. 

Mednet: Meetings — Based out of Hamilton, this database can be filtered by specialty, or an advanced search by date range and meeting title.

Medscape Live – This website can be searched by specialty, location and date. 

Medical Education Resources (MER): Primary care conferences – This non-profit organization provides commercial-free continuing medical education for primary care physicians. The database can be filtered by destination, month and topic. 

Pri-Med (U.S-based events) and Pri-Med.ca (Canada-based events) – Continuing medical education for primary care physicians.

Pulsus Conferences – This list of worldwide conferences can be searched by country and subject. 

Symposia Medicus – This non-profit organization aims to provide the highest quality continuing education for health-care providers across a range of professions and specialties. 

World Conference Alerts – This website can be searched by country, category and date.