Continuing Medical Education

The OMA CME page provides links to trusted Canadian organizations that create and aggregate information about Continuing Medical Education conferences, courses and seminars to members of the Ontario Medical Association.

Track your CPD

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

• The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada: Maintenance of Certification Program 
• The College of Family Physicians of Canada: Understanding the updated Mainpro+ program requirements 
• The Medical Psychotherapy Association Canada: Education, credentialing and maintenance of competence for members of the MDPAC; continuing education requirements 

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 webpage 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.

Red flags for predatory conferences 

To support your decision to attend a medical conference, we have developed these tips to help identify fraudulent and scam conferences, which are unfortunately becoming more common, particularly internationally. These tips can help you identify any red flags before you register for a conference.

1. Logistics

• Compare the registration fees with those of reputable conferences in your field
• Pay close attention to the registration process. Evidence of fraudulent activity often shows up here
• Avoid "pay-to-present" or “pay-to-publish" models
• Read the refund policy carefully
• Speakers at a conference generally receive a discount on conference registration and fees, they do not pay extra for the privilege of speaking
• If a venue is listed, contact the venue to confirm the event is scheduled to take place
• Look for vague contact details. Organizers should be available through official channels. Watch out for organizers only reachable via unofficial email addresses like Gmail or Yahoo, chatbots, or messaging apps like WhatsApp

2. Affiliation, speakers and leadership

• Check for clear affiliation with legitimate, well-recognized organizations or established scientific associations in your field. Check that the organization endorses the conference on the organization's website
• Use recognized external resources specifically designed to evaluate academic platforms like Think. Check. Attend. (For conferences)
• Look closely at the editorial committee and keynote speakers; search for their names to verify if they are recognizable and if the topic is consistent with their expertise
• If you’ve never heard of the conference before, contact listed speakers to confirm their involvement, as predatory conferences may use legitimate names without permission
• Search the names of any listed sponsors to confirm that their sponsorship makes sense. Google Scholar would not specifically sponsor a nephrology conference, but Elsevier through the Kidney International journal, might.  

3. Quality and content

• Read previous conference proceedings (if published) to get a sense of academic quality
• Be alert for a lack of details about the conference program. Look for the event being overly general and lacking a coherent theme