Transfer CME to the American Board of Surgery (ABS)

If you are an American College of Surgeons (ACS) Fellow who is certified by the American Board of Surgery (ABS), MyCME provides two ways to report your eligible CME credits to the ABS.

The recommended option is to enroll in automatic CME transfer, which securely sends eligible ACS-accredited CME credits to the ABS via the ACCME after you claim them. If you prefer, or need to submit credits for a specific reporting period, you can also manually transmit your CME records.

Choose How You Want to Report Your CME

Option 1: Automatic CME Transfer

To simplify and streamline MOC and CME reporting, the ACS has collaborated with the ACCME to seamlessly report physician participation in ACS-accredited CME activities to the ABS.

The direct automatic transfer applies to all learners who have an ACS profile, are Diplomates of the ABS, and have provided their ABS ID and date of birth in the ACS MyCME Portal.

How to Opt In

You may choose to opt in for all your ACS-accredited CME credits to be automatically transferred on your behalf, by updating your preferences using these simple steps:

Log in to MyCME.
Select Send CME.
Check the box that states “Yes! I choose to opt in and permit the ACS to automatically transfer all my ACS-accredited CME data to my chosen specialty board earned March 1, 2021, and forward.”

Once your enrollment is complete, future eligible ACS-accredited CME credits will be sent automatically to the ABS.

Option 2: Manually Transmit CME to the ABS

If you have not enrolled in Automatic CME Transfer, or you need to submit credits for a specific date range, you can manually transmit your CME records.

How to Manually Submit CME

Log in to MyCME.
Select Send CME Data.
Choose American Board of Surgery (ABS) as the receiving board.
Verify or enter your ABS ID.
Select the date range for the CME you want to submit.
Review your transcript and verify that the information is correct.
Select Submit.

Your submission will be transmitted to the ABS for processing.

Please allow adequate processing time before verifying your credits within your ABS account.

If you need step-by-step instructions with screenshots, view our How to Transmit CME to ABS guide.

Need Your ABS ID?

Your ABS ID is required to enroll in Automatic CME Transfer and to manually transmit CME credits.

How to Find Your ABS ID

Log in to your American Board of Surgery account.

Locate your Diplomate profile.

Copy your ABS ID exactly as it appears.

Return to MyCME and enter the ID when prompted.

If you cannot locate your ABS ID, please contact the ABS at cc@absurgery.org for assistance.

Need Assistance?

If you have questions about MyCME, claiming CME credit, or transmitting CME records, please contact mycme@facs.org.

For questions regarding your ABS certification record or ABS ID, please contact the American Board of Surgery at cc@absurgery.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I took an ACS-accredited activity that was held by another organization, society, or healthcare institution?

If you attend activities with an outside organization, you will be required to provide your ACS Learner ID to the CME provider when claiming credit if you would like the credits transferred automatically to the ABS via ACCME.

If you do not already have an ACS profile (Learner ID), you can create one through the ACS New User Registration Form. This is a free offering for both members and nonmembers who have enrolled in an ACS educational activity. If you need assistance with creating an ACS Learner ID or are not certain if you already have one, please use the Support button on Contact ACS page. Please note this is required only for those who do not already have an account at the ACS.

If you create your account after you attended an ACS-accredited activity through an outside provider, please contact MyCME@facs.org to ensure the credits for that activity are applied to your CME transcript.

What do I need to do to enable automatic transfer of completed CME activities for the ABS to award MOC?

After an ABS Diplomate completes and claims AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^™ and your CME credit is successfully transferred, the ABS will then issue related MOC credit/points. No additional action is needed.

Which specialty boards are currently supported?

The ABS is supported for the transmission of CME credits earned from ACS-accredited activities. We anticipate adding additional boards in the future.

If you have an ACS profile (Learner ID) and have claimed CME from ACS-accredited activities starting from March 1, 2021, and onward that have not yet been transferred to the ABS, the ACS will transmit those CME credits for you.

Moving forward, all ABS Diplomates who claim CME from ACS-accredited activities will have those credits transmitted automatically by the ACS to the ABS via the ACCME once you have opted in to participate.

How do I opt in to the automatic CME credit transmission to the ABS?

You can choose to opt in to the automatic transmission by following these simple steps:

Log in to your MyCME Portal
Select Send CME tab
Click the toggle to “I choose to opt in and permit the ACS to automatically transfer all my ACS-accredited CME data to my chosen specialty board earned March 1, 2021, and forward.”
You can change your preferences and opt out at any time.

What if it is not an ACS-accredited activity?

If you participate in an activity that was not accredited by the ACS, you are more than welcome to keep track of those activities inside your MyCME portal as you have done in past. However, we cannot transmit these data to the board. It is recommended the attendee contact the host of the CME activity that was accredited by an external provider to receive information for how to transmit the CME Data. The host of the CME activity may have most likely collaborated with ACCME and the applicable boards to arrange for those data to be transmitted automatically. The host for the activity will most likely know if the data will be automatically sent on your behalf from the board. So, you will not have to do anything else. If you would like additional information regarding ABS and how they will receive credits for courses not accredited by the ACS, please email cc@absurgery.org.