National Disaster Life Support™ (NDLS™)

Providing CME through the AMA

Instructions for Course Directors

The American Medical Association (AMA) has certified ADLS®, BDLS® and CDLS® for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. If you choose to register your course to provide CME to your participants, they will receive an additional certificate indicating credits earned (for physicians) or hours of participation (for non-physicians). This certificate—unlike the certificate of training alone—documents CME credit that most physicians need to meet their CME requirements for specialty boards, hospital privileging and licensure. Many non-physicians can also use a CME certificate of participation toward their professional requirements.
If you are providing an ADLS, BDLS or CDLS course, you are already required to provide the following documentation.

• Course Agenda
• Participant data spreadsheet
• Evaluation summary spreadsheet

In order for the AMA to provide CME for your course, you will need to complete the following additional items:

• Tailored course agenda with required CME language
• Registering your course for CME, with information on instructors in advance
• A copy of disclosure forms for each faculty member in advance (only needs to be submitted once if faculty present multiple times)
• Information on hours of participation claimed by participants wanting a certificate of AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ or participation

The AMA will invoice your organization $10 per certificate following processing of the CME certificates only for approved courses.
If you complete the instructions below, you will successfully meet all of the requirements for providing an NDLS course, as well as AMA CME requirements.

Please read the complete instructions below:

1. Register your course with the AMA
You must register your course via the link below, and include all required information. This should be done at least 1 month in advance of the course date. We will need to have a copy of all disclosure forms (dated within the last 12 months) for faculty on file.

Once you submit your course information, you will either receive an e-mail indicating that we need additional disclosure forms, or you will receive an approval to proceed with your activity for CME through AMA. Unless you receive an approval e-mail, we will not award CME to participants.

Register your course

2. Confirm disclosures
We can only approve your course for credit if we have an up-to-date (within the past 12 months) disclosure form on file indicating any relevant financial relationships for each faculty member. If you have not previously submitted a disclosure form for your faculty members, please use the form below (in Word), which can be completed electronically and e-mailed. If you have questions about whether a disclosure is on file, or to submit a completed disclosure form, e-mail NDLS@ama-assn.org.

Electronic disclosure form (Word, 97KB)

3. CME information for participants
You must provide a "CME Course Agenda" to your participants, which includes required CME components and must be tailored to your activity. A template is provided below (in Word). You must include the location and date of the activity, as well as the printed disclosure statements for each faculty member. If a faculty member has a financial relationship to disclose, you must include the company and type of relationship. You will need to provide a copy of this agenda following the course.

ADLS CME Course Agenda template( Word, 109KB)
BDLS CME Course Agenda template (Word, 94KB)
CDLS CME Course Agenda template (Word, 85KB)

4. Participation data
It is already required for NDLS to submit a participant data spreadsheet, which includes required information for all individuals who actually participated, including post-test scores.

If you are providing CME, you will need to indicate the hours of participation claimed by the participants requesting CME, as well as their date of birth. Participants should claim the actual number of hours they participated in the activity—this additional information can be captured by asking participants to complete the CME Request Form, or having them sign out on a registration sheet if they leave early.

Participation spreadsheet with CME hours template (Excel, 46KB)
CME Request Form for participants (PDF, 41KB)

5. Evaluation
Until we have an online course registration system, you will need to submit an evaluation summary in the electronic template provided, based on the returned evaluations of your participants.

ADLS Evaluation summary template, Day 1 (Excel, 76KB)
ADLS Evaluation summary template, Day 2 (Excel, 72KB)
BDLS Evaluation summary template (Excel, 76KB)
CDLS Evaluation summary template (Excel, 76KB)

6. Budget Form
Extraordinary sources of revenue and honoraria for each NDLS activity must be reported to the AMA in order to be certified for CME.

If you registered your course for CME approval, please submit the provided budget form no more than two weeks after the course. This budget form is not asking you to disclose institutional operating revenue or expenses. Rather, you are asked to report if your organization received any of the following specifically for the NDLS activity you have submitted for approval:

• Commercial support from industry (e.g., pharmaceutical, biotech or device companies)
• Other grant funding (e.g., government grants)
• Advertising or exhibit revenue

In addition, host sites are asked to list (if applicable) outside faculty who received honoraria, and the amount of honoraria they were provided.

Budget form template (Word, 59KB)

7. Returning information to the AMA
You must return to the AMA the following materials within two weeks of the course:

• A copy of the CME Agenda
• Participation spreadsheet with CME credits claimed and post-test scores
• Evaluation summary
• Budget Form

If you do not submit materials within this time, it may affect your ability to have future courses approved for CME through the AMA.
Information should be submitted electronically to ndls@ama-assn.org. If you have any questions, please contact Ruth Anne Steinbrecher at (312) 464-4149