ASCP CE: The Ultimate Guide to ASCP CE (Continuing Education)

ASCP CE (Continuing Education) not only boosts your mastery by introducing new technologies but also meets your CMP (Credential Maintenance Program) credit requirements.

The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Certification (BOC) offers many courses and activities of continuing education for laboratory professionals.

All these resources meet your institutional, certification, and work licensure CE requirements.

The ASCP BOC serves the lab professional in many ways, including work licensure, membership, and continuing education.

The main purpose of ASCP continuing education is to keep you updated with emerging technologies.

Therefore, the board established a CMP (Credential Maintenance Program) for all its credentials.

To meet ASCP certification renewal points, you can use the ASCP continuing education credits.

In this article, we offer a comprehensive overview of ASCP CE with its best courses and tell you how you can track and earn the CE.

Understanding the ASCP CE Requirements

After getting three years of ASCP certification, you need to participate in CMP to update your certificate for the upcoming three years.

During this period, you need to meet your CMP point to satisfy its requirements.

For each certification, you need to get points in your area of specialty, patient safety, medical ethics, and lab-related work.

For instance, if you have an MLS ASCP (medical laboratory scientist) certification, you need to get 36 points before the expiration of your certificate.

Distribution of 36 points for MLS ASCP:

• Blood banking, hematology, chemistry, and microbiology: 2 points per subject
• Patient safety and lab: 1 point
• Medical ethics: 1 point
• Lab specialty, molecular diagnostics, education, management, or other lab-related work: 26 points

Top ASCP CE Course in 2024

Here is the list of ASCP CE courses

• ASCP Case Report
• CE Packages
• LabQ
• Patient Safety
• Resident Question Bank
• MLS Online Review Course
• Inside the Lab Podcast
• BOC Interactive Practice Question
• Virtual Pathology Grand Round

ASCP Case Report

The ASCP case report is a multi-purpose and self-study tool that navigates a huge part of clinical and anatomic pathology.

The areas of study in ASCP case reports are clinical chemistry, cytopathology, forensic pathology, hematopathology, microbiology, renal pathology, surgical pathology, and transfusion medicine.

Features of ASCP Case Report

• Cover anatomic and clinical pathology entirely
• Slide images with high-resolution digital images
• Offer 2 CMLE/CME credits per exercise

CE Packages

The ASCP BOC also presents one-year unlimited CE packages and multi-credit online CE packages.

One-Year Unlimited Online CE Packages

You can access the courses all the time, whenever you want. But you have to finish all these courses within one year.

Multi-credit Online CE Packages

If you consider that you cannot complete the one-year unlimited online CE packages in one year, you must get multi-credit online CE packages that help you fulfill your CE requirements.

ASCP LabQ

ASCP LabQ is also a self-study tool that comprises 18 real-life case studies and is best for practicing lab technologists.

Features of ASCP LabQ

• Explore all the challenges of the lab and offer the best solution to cope with them.
• Present 2 credit  hours in lab and patient safety
• 36 hours of SMLE credits: 2 credits per exercise
• 6 hours of whole credit offer clinical chemistry, clinical immunology, hematology, microbiology, molecular diagnostics, and transfusion medicine.

Patient Safety

These are case-based safety practices designed to train pathologists and lab professionals to boost their skills and knowledge.

Features of Patient Safety

• It comprises 8 modules on patient safety; you will get one continuing education credit per module (meet the CMP requirement).
• Some modules, like 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8, also present 1 credit in medical ethics.

Resident Question Bank

• Powerful self-learning tool works for resident
• Bundle of hundreds of MCQs in a browser-based online format
• Meet the requirement of CC (Continuing Certification)

MLS ASCP Review Course

It is the most reasonable study tool for U.S. and international candidates who want to get MLS ASCP certification.

Product Features

• Cover the entire content area of the ASCP medical lab scientist.
• It comprises 10 interactive module
• Nine modules out of ten summarize the key exam syllabus, while module 10 delivers information related to the ASCP exam format.

Inside the Lab Podcast

• The ASCP Lab Podcast concentrates on current topics in laboratory medicine and pathology.

BOC Interactive Practice Exam

The questions are designed to follow the format of a real exam, which helps you to get the preparation done with ease.

Features of the BOC Interactive Practice Exam

• It comprises 25,000 questions.
• Mobile friendly
• Cover the entire exam content

Virtual Pathology Grand Round

• Virtual Pathology Grand Round is a new study experience available on mobile devices and computers that adds perfection to practice preparation.
• VPGR covers the lecture on lab medicine, clinical pathology, and anatomic pathology.
• Meet your CME/CMLE credits

How To Access ASCP CE Courses

• First of all, you need to create an account on the ASCP website
• Add all the required information; this information may be related to your identity like your name, email ID, etc
• Never create a duplicate account
• After creating an account, the ASCP dashboard displays in front of you
• Scroll down the page and find “Learning.”
• Click on “Online Education” to get access to Online ASCP CE Courses

Earning and Tracking Your CE Credits

For keeping track of all your activities, including tracking CE credits, earning and adding CE credits, applying for CE requirements, or sending declarations, all can be handled from My Account Dashboard (tool).

You will have access to this tool after creating an account on the ASCP website.

Earning CE Credits

You can earn continuing education credits from ASCP and non-ASCP activities.

CE Credits Through ASCP

• All the courses that you get from ASCP will be displayed in the ASCP transcript and automatically entered into your CMP declaration process.
• The CMP declaration process tracks all points, which should be for recertification and which are not (it is an automatic process)
• You must determine the correct topic area to earn CE credits

How to Track ASCP CE Credit

• Open your ASCP account
• Explore “My Education” and open “Check Progress” to view your ASCP continuing education credits.
• All the credits that you will get from ASCP are automatically entered in the ASCP transcript.

CE Credit Through Non-ASCP Providers

The ASCP Board of Certification also allows you to get continuing education credit from other activities, including workshops, subscriptions to online courses, teleconferences, etc.

• You should add these credits manually to the ASCP transcript
• Make sure to get the credits for the correct topic area

Here is the list of CE provider

• AAPA: American Association of Pathologists’ Assistants
• AABB
• AMA: American Medical Association
• ASM: American Society of Microbiology
• ASH: American Society of Hematology
• CLMA: Clinical Laboratory Management Association
• CAP: College of American Pathologist

How To Track Non-ASCP Credits

• Open your ASCP account
• Explore the section “My Education” and open the “Check Progress” to get information about continuing education
• See the option of “CMP Credits and Progress.”
• Click the tab and enter “Non-ASCP Credits.”
• Enter all required information, including date, type, title, etc that is related to the area of topics in which you get credits

ASCP Continuing Education for Different Specialty

ASCP presents continuing education resources for each specialty of lab medicine and pathology, including histotechnologists, medical laboratory scientists, and phlebotomists.

ASCP Continuing Education for MLS ASCP

If you are trying for ASCP MLS, you will get the following resources from ASCP

• MLS ASCP online review course (covers all the exam content area)
• ASCP BOC Study Guide
• BOC Interactive Practice Questions (bundle of 25,00 questions)

ASCP Continuing Education for PBT ASCP

• BOC Phlebotomy Interactive Practice Exam (Bundle of 1300 questions)
• LabQ Phlebotomy Volume (four phlebotomy case studies and 2 CMLE per case)
• Study Guide (Cover complete exam syllabus)

For HT ASCP (Histotechnician)

• BOC Histotechnology (HT) Interactive Practice Exam (bundle of 1300 questions)
• LabQ Histology

Affordable CE Packages

Everything that you are getting from ASCP, you have to pay first to get it.

For many products, the prices are so high that you cannot purchase them.

Therefore, ASCP offers membership, which reduces a lot of cost of the ASCP continuing education and makes things more affordable.

For instance:

One-unlimited CE Packages (Lab professional)

• Member Price: $39
• Non-member Price: $190

LabQ Clinicla Laboratory Volume Online 2023

• Member Price: $99
• Non-member Price: $109

ASCP Patient Safety

• Member price: $175
• List Price: $250

To get the resources at a low cost, you must become a member of ASCP.

Maximizing the Benefits of ASCP CE

To get all the perks of ASCP continuing education, you must utilize all the resources that offer you valuable results.

Use the ASCP CE Courses

• You must use ASCP online courses to improve your career.
• Make sure to use review courses, study guides, and practice questions
• Utilize CE packages and other resources to meet CE credit with CE education.

Attend ASCP Live Events

You must also join the ASCP live events, which include:

• Annual Meeting: Where you meet with experts and get their experience.
• Live Session: Where specific topics are covered related to your area of specialty.
• Roundtable: In the ASCP roundtable, the hot topics that are related to your interests are summarized.
• ASCP Live sessions also increase your network

Become ASCP Member

• To maximize the advantages of continuing education, you must get ASCP membership to obtain exclusive discounts on all resources.

Final Verdict for ASCP CE

ASCP CE (continuing education) is a bundle of educational resources that boost your skills and knowledge and make you a highly experienced professional.

The ASCP online CE products also offer you CMP (Credential Maintenance Program), CME (Continuing Medical Education), and CMLE (Continuing Medical Laboratory Education) credits.

The ASCP CE helps you maintain a balance between your practice and recertification programs.

Whether your field is medical lab science, or you are a medical lab technician, you will get products from Ascp for your continuing education.

FAQs for ASCP CE