Helpful Tips for Completing the “Gap and Needs” Section - CME Activity Application

Aug 31, 2026

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Guide for completing the “Gap and Needs” section in a CME activity application, focused on articulating the purpose, identifying professional practice gaps, and supporting educational needs with data. Explains how to describe the difference between actual practice and best practice, distinguishes practice gaps from weak or unsupported topics, and offers sentence templates and multiple before/after examples. Covers general vs. specific practice gaps and outlines how needs assessments link collected evidence to learning requirements.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatDOCX

Pages4

Reading Time2 min

AccessFree to download

Background/Purpose

Ready-to-use template for background

Professional Practice Gap(s)

Definition: actual vs. best practice

What qualifies / what does not

General vs. specific practice gaps

Before-and-after example structures

Needs Assessment

Data-driven linkage to the gap

Educational needs categories

Knowledge needs

Competence needs

Performance needs

Helpful Tips for Completing the “Gap and Needs” Section Background/Purpose: This is your opportunity to summarize why you are planning a CME activity. This should be a brief explanation to help the CME office and application review committee understand why this topic is important. You can consider using the following template as a way to succinctly articulate the background/purpose of your activity: This activity will specifically address practice inconsistencies in planning/execution/ provision of ___________, and management of ________ and _________ in the __________ population. The goal is to ensure that health care providers have the knowledge and skills necessary for optimal delivery of care for patients with ___________. Example 1: This activity will specifically address practice inconsistencies in the provision of guideline recommend treatment and management of exacerbations and hospitalizations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The goal is to ensure that health care providers have the knowledge and skills necessary for optimal delivery of care for patients with COPD. Example 2: Recently, CMS added a COPD hospital readmission measure to the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program. Health care providers managing patients admitted for COPD exacerbations do not always adhere to evidence-based guidelines for the management of these patients. This activity will review the latest recommendations as well as provide a model for integrating system based changes into clinical practice to address COPD readmissions. Professional Practice Gap(s): CME activities must identify and address at least one educational gap. A professional practice gap is defined as the difference between health care processes and outcomes currently in practice and those potentially achievable. Put simply, it is actual practice (what learners currently know and/or do) vs. best practice (what they should know and/or do). Practice gaps exist in patient care (clinical) and health care system (non-clinical) situations. Ask yourself, “What does the target audience need to improve upon in order to provide better and safer patient care?” A professional practice gap can be articulated by completing the following sentence: A learner practice gap exists because learners currently . . . Click HYPERLINK "http://www.accme.org/education-and-support/video/faq/can-you-share-some-examples-what-considered-professional-practice" here to watch a short video provided by the ACCME explaining “professional practice gap.” A professional practice gap is NOT: A topic that sounds interesting that is not supported by evidence A topic retrospectively defined after the speaker and agenda has already been set A list of learning objectives Practice gaps can be general or specific. Typically, general practice gaps are appropriate for regularly scheduled series (i.e. grand rounds, journal club, M&M) since the individual topics of each session are likely unknown.) Alternatively, specific practice gaps are more appropriate for live courses and symposiums. Example 1. A general practice gap for Internal Medicine Grand Rounds: Internal medicine providers at Northwestern need to understand medical innovations and develop strategies for implementing them into their practice. Example 2. A specific practice gap for a Critical Care Symposium: Intensivists are not routinely prescribing low tidal volume ventilation to patients with acute lung injury. Additional examples (before and after) Example 1. Before (NOT a practice gap): New guidelines have been developed for the management of stroke. Our activity will provide a comprehensive review of the new guidelines. After (A well-articulated practice gap): Practitioners managing patients with acute stroke only follow treatment recommendations 30% of the time. With optimal management, patient survival can be significantly improved. Physicians lack knowledge of new stroke recommendations and lack strategies for i

FAQs

What is the purpose of the “Gap and Needs” section in a CME activity application?

It summarizes why the CME activity is planned and helps the CME office and review committee understand why the topic is important.

How do you define and articulate a professional practice gap?

A professional practice gap is the difference between current healthcare processes/outcomes and what could be achieved. It can be expressed by stating that a learner practice gap exists because learners currently do not know or do the best-practice actions.

What should a needs assessment include and how should it support the stated gap?

A needs assessment should be data-driven and identify the cause of the professional practice gap. It explains what evidence was collected that makes the gap or CME need clear, and maps educational needs into knowledge, competence, and performance categories.

Aug 31, 2026

Upload by Bintang