CPD Credits for Canadian Physicians

CMAJ is a provider of Mainpro+® certified Self-Learning credits from the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) can transfer your credits directly to CFPC on your behalf. This service is currently only available for registrants of cma.ca. These Mainpro+® certified Self-Learning credits can be earned by completing a brief Impact Assessment questionnaire after reading eligible articles in the journal. This service is currently only available for CFPC members who are registered with cma.ca. To register, create an account at CMA Connect.

View the Current Certified CPD Articles page. These articles are expiring soon.

Canadian physicians can also request credit directly from CFPC and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for non-certified learning credits based on reading CMAJ articles.

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

CMAJ is a useful resource for members of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in obtaining Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credits:

Readers can receive 1 Section 2 credit per article for any CMAJ articles that they have read and deemed to have had a substantial impact on their learning or practice.
Credit can also be obtained (0.5 Section 2 credits per topic) for listening to CMAJ podcasts, watching CMAJ videos or searching CMAJ’s archives.
Peer reviewers for CMAJ receive up to 15 Section 2 credits per year as a Peer Review activity.
Preparing articles for submission to CMAJ can also earn authors 2 Section 2 credits per hour as a Personal Learning Project (PLP).
CMAJ articles can also be used for Section 1 credits for participants in accredited or unaccredited journal clubs (value of credit depends on accreditation status).

Requests for credit should be submitted directly to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. More information on the MOC Program can be obtained here.

The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Certified Self-Learning Credits

CMAJ is a provider of Mainpro+® certified Self-Learning credits from the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC).

Canadian physicians can earn Mainpro+ Certified Self-Learning credits for completing a brief, reflective exercise (an ‘Impact Assessment’) after reading eligible CMAJ articles (available for 18 months after publication).

Credits are transferred directly to CFPC on your behalf for each eligible CMAJ article for which an 'Impact Assessment' is submitted, to a maximum of 50 credits per year. The number of credits varies by article type. See table below.

1 credit	0.5 credit	0.25 credit
Guideline	Practice – Case	Practice – Five things to know about
Review	Practice – Decisions	Practice – Five ways to support
Analysis	Practice – What's your call	Practice – Clinical Images
	Practice – Innovations
	Practice – 360 Cases

For more information, please see below. View the list of current certified articles.

Non-certified Credits

Any CFPC member or those who are part of CFPC’s Non-Member Mainpro+ Participant Program can obtain non-certified credits (1.0 credit per hour of participation) for the following activities related to CMAJ:

Reading CMAJ articles that are not identified as part of CMAJ’s Certified Self-Learning Credit Program (Self-Learning category).
Self-study using CMAJ podcasts and CMAJ videos (Self-Learning category).
Preparing an article for submission to CMAJ (Self-Learning category).
Peer reviewing a paper for CMAJ (Assessment category).
Use of a CMAJ article in a journal club (Group Learning category)

Claims for non-certified credits should be made directly with CFPC. More information on CFPC’s Mainpro+® Program can be found here.

How CMAJ’s Certified Self-Learning Credit Program works

Each issue of CMAJ includes one or more articles designated as eligible for Certified Self-Learning credits for CMA members. Look for eligible articles in the Table of Contents weekly email (“Earn CPD credits), print edition (“CPD” icon) or list of current certified articles. Sign up for the weekly Table of Contents email.

Read the article(s) for which you wish to earn credit. Click on the “Related Content” tab at the top of the article. If credits are available for that article, you will see the heading “EARN CPD CREDITS”. Click the “Yes” button under “did you read this article”. Alternatively, select and read articles from the list of eligible articles, or the weekly Table of Contents email, and click on the “Earn CPD credits” link. You'll be directed to a page that shows the title of the article and the number of credits you're eligible to receive. Click 'Yes' when asked "Did you read this article?"
You are then directed to the cma.ca log-in page. Enter your cma.ca user name and password when prompted. (If you are a CFPC member but do not have a cma.ca account, create one at CMA Connect.)
Once logged in, you'll be directed to an 'Impact assessment'. Complete the assessment and 'Submit'. You are then prompted to enter your CFPC membership number, if you haven't already done so. Credits are automatically recorded and transferred to the CFPC on a quarterly basis.
Readers can make comments on articles or ask questions of authors or other readers using the “Respond to this article” link (to the right of each article in the Article Tools box at CMAJ.CA). All responses are vetted by CMAJ editors prior to posting, and once responses are posted, authors are automatically notified. Authors and readers may respond using the same link.