ASCP CE Requirement: A Comprehensive Guide

To meet your ASCP CE requirements, the Board of Certification offers resources and activities.

The resources (ASCP online education products) and activities (ASCP live events, serving ASCP communities) meet your institutional, certification, and licensure requirements.

Besides this,  ASCP continuing education helps lab professionals, pathologists, and residents stay sharp in their field while presenting simple ways to meet credit for certification renewal.

The ASCP Board of Certification is the world’s first credential agency that not only offers certification to lab professionals but also resources to polish their careers.

Once you become ASCP-certified, the ASCP remains in touch with you throughout your entire life through its ASCP certification maintenance programs.

To update your skills and knowledge related to your field, the ASCP presents certification renewal programs every three years after getting your certification (repeated cycle for lifelong).

Understanding the ASCP CE Requirements

In January 2004, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Certification (BOC) made the CMP mandatory for all its certifications.

The purpose behind this decision is to insert the latest technologies into ASCP-certified professionals to keep them up-to-date with the field.

Therefore, to satisfy your CMP requirements, you have to earn CE credits that can be used in place of CMP points.

The ASCP BOC determines CMP points for all its certifications, which may be 36 for most certifications and 9 for some certificates or so on.

With your practice, you have to earn these points within three years of the period to send the CMP declaration on time.

For instance:

If you have a medical laboratory technician (MLT ASCP) credential, you have to earn 36 points.

The distribution of 36 points is:

• 2 points:  Areas of specialty like chemistry, blood banking, hematology, and microbiology.
• 1 point: Patient safety and laboratory
• 1 point: medical ethics
• 26 points: immunology, education, molecular diagnostics, or other lab interest.

Distribution of 9 Point

For PBT ASCP (phlebotomy Technician)

• 2 points: Area of specialty (phlebotomy)
• 1 point: patient safety and laboratory
•  Point: medical ethics
• 5 points: lab specialty, including education and management.

How to Earn ASCP CE Credits?

To meet your ASCP CE requirements, the ASCP BOC offers online education products.

Here is the list of ASCP online education products

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

ASCP Case Report

The ASCP case report overcomes the major areas of forensic pathology, clinical chemistry, microbiology, cytopathology, hematopathology, surgical pathology, transfusion medicine, and renal pathology.

Why use the ASCP Case Report?

• Best study tool for pathologists and lab professionals
• Offer information on all areas of anatomic and clinical pathology.
• Access online
• Offer 2 Continuing Medical Education (CME)/Continuing Medical Laboratory Education (CMLE) credits per exercise

Patient Safety

This tool is best for understanding the culture of safety and trains lab professionals and pathologists to combat lab issues.

• It is a bundle of 8 modules of patient safety and provides 1 CME/CMLE (continuing education credit) per module
• 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8 modules offer 1 CMP point in medical ethics.

LabQ and LabQ-p

The LabQ and LabQ-p are online study tools that cover real-life case studies to train medical lab technologists.

LabQ Features:

• Patient and lab safety: 2 credit hour
• All cases are summarized with tables, digital images, laboratory results, etc.
• CMLE credits 36 hours (2 credits per exercise) offered after completing the post-test.

LabQ-p Features

• Concentrate on common lab issues
• Present credits for CMP

Resident Question Bank

• Follow the format of the ASCP real exam question
• Best for pathologists with CC (continuing certification) to meet CC requirements.
• Cover the entire exam content area

MLS Online Review Course

Whether you are a U.S. medical lab scientist or international, you can use it for better preparation.

• This course comprises 10 modules; nine modules out of 10 cover the exam syllabus, while module 10 offers you facts about the ASCP certification process.

CE Packages

The CE packages meet your ASCP CE requirements that may be related to your certification, institution, and license.

• One-year Unlimited Online CE Package: You can get this course 24/7 but once you subscribe, you have to complete it within one year.
• Multi-credit Online CE Package: This package consists of a bundle of courses that come with many credits. You can get one that meets your ASCP CE requirement.

Inside the Lab Podcast

• Cover the latest topics on lab medicine and pathology
• Meet CME/CMLE credits

Virtual Pathology and Grand Round

• Cover the relevant topics of lab medicine, clinical pathology, and anatomic pathology with questions and answers

BOC Interactive Practice Exam

• Bundle of 25000 questions that follow the format of a real exam.
• You can set a time limit to learn time management.

ASCP Membership and CE Opportunities

If you get the ASCP membership with ASCP certification, your chances of meeting the ASCP CE requirements and getting benefits increase many times.

ASCP Live Events

• ASCP membership offers you easy access to ASCP live events, like the ASCP annual meeting;
• Annual meetings increase your area of community and present you points to meet your ASCP CE requirement.
• It is also a great opportunity to acquire the experience of experts

Membership Meet your Recertification

• Offer you 6 online CME credit that can be used for re-certification
• Offer an exclusive discount on CE packages for additional credits.

Exclusive Bonus of Educational Product (Continuing Education)

If you are a member of ASCP, you will get a discount on all products that you purchase from ASCP.

For example:

Resident Question Bank

• Member price:$450
• List Price: $498

MLS Online Review Course

• Member Price: $49
• List Price: $59

ASCP Patient Safety

• Member Cost: $175
• List Cost: $250

One-Year Online CE Packages (for pathologists)

• Non-member Value: $190
• Member Value: $130

Other Activities for Earning CE Credit

The ASCP BOC offers a variety of opportunities for its members to streamline their success.

You can also earn CE credits from participating in other activities like authoring journals, serving communities, etc.

Following are some activities that you can do for your continuing education credits

Join Committee

Following are the ASCP committees that you must join to maximize the chances of ASCP CE requirements.

• Governance and member councils
• ASCP Product Development
• Social Media Team
• BOC Exam Committees

ASCP Publishes

You must author your journals for ASCP publication to get continuing education credits.

ASCP publications include:

• American Journal of Clinical Pathology (Article types: Review articles, editorials, and originals)
• Laboratory Medicine (Article types: Case study, LabAQ, special reports, media review, science, management, and administrative.)
• Critical Value ( Its articles are related to issues of laboratory medicine and pathology including technical, ethical, global health, and regulatory.)

Serve Community

You can support your career and earn CE credits by serving the following communities

• ASCP Policy Efforts
• Supporting Public Health Worldwide
• Partners for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa
• Choosing Wisely + ASCP
• ASCP Patient Champions
• Career Ambassador 2.0

You can also get CE credits from non-ASCP activities.

For this, you can join online CE courses, workshops, or teleconferences.

Here is the list of Some CE credit providers:

• AAPA—American Association of Pathologists’ Assistants
• ASC—American Society of Cytopathology
• ASFA—American Society for Apheresis
• ASM—American Society of Microbiology
• CMEA—Continuing Medical Education Association
• NSH—National Society for Histotechnology
• The American Red Cross
• CAP—College of American Pathologists
• CACMLE—Colorado Association for Continuing Medical Laboratory Education
• ASCLS PACE—American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science

Navigating the ASCP Online Learning Portal

To get access to ASCP online education products, you must follow the below instructions.

• Create an account on the ASCP official website
• Enter all required information (personal information, name, ID card, email ID, etc)
• Add the exit information that is present on your identification cards and insert your current email ID.
• After creating an account on ASCP, the official page will display in front of you.
• Scroll down the page and choose the “Online Education” option in all other ASCP activities
• Click on “Access Online Education” and  get the products that you want to purchase

Final Verdict for ASCP CE Requirement

The ASCP BOC determines many opportunities for you to meet your ASCP CE requirements.

You must utilize all wisely to achieve full advantages from all.

First of all, you should get an ASCP membership with certification, so you get a discount on all products that simplify the process of getting CE credits.

Besides this, You should join the ASCP annual meeting for continuing education credits.

You also consider other activities like serving ASCP communities and writing in the ASCP publication to enhance the chance for more CE credits.

Are you considering getting the CE from non-ASCP activities if you realize that you have to get it? Ascp permits you to earn CE from non-ASCP activities.

FAQs for ASCP CE Requirements