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Doctors, mandatory training 2023-2025 at the end of the line: here's how to check you are in line with obligations and procedures

For the last three years, at least 70 per cent of the credits must have accrued in order for the professional liability insurance policies to be valid, otherwise the insurance contracts will be ineffective, transforming the Ecm from a deontological requirement to a practical necessity for professional coverage

by Claudio Testuzza

29 December 2025

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2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

31 December marks the deadline for healthcare professionals to achieve the 150 Ecm credits for the three-year period 2023-2025 of continuing education. It is therefore advisable for doctors to log on to their area on the www.cogeaps.it website, via SPID, to check their position regarding the fulfilment of their individual training obligation.

The obligation for doctors

Every physician/dentist for the three-year period 2023-2025 must fulfil, as a learner, at least 40% of his or her three-year training requirement, which could be different from the 150 credits envisaged as there may have been reductions as a result of training bonuses. While the remaining 60% may also be accrued through teaching activities (lecturers, speakers, tutors), moderation activities and scientific responsibility in Ecm events or through 'individual training' activities.

Continuing Education for doctors and health professionals is still a diverse and heterogeneous world throughout Europe: mandatory in Austria, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Only in France and Italy, however, are sanctions provided for in the event of non-compliance, although they have never been applied to date.

In other countries the Ecm is considered as an ethical commitment. In general, however, the prevailing tendency is to consider the Ecm as an intrinsic deontological duty for the optimal conduct of one's profession, even if there is no homogeneity of behaviour in Europe with regard to the modalities for providing and achieving credits.

Ecm and policies

In Italy, Continuing Medical Education courses are fundamental and compulsory for doctors. They serve to ensure that they remain constantly up-to-date on new knowledge and techniques, thus ensuring a better quality of care and responding to patients' needs. The need to obtain them guarantees a Legal and Deontological Obligation. It is a requirement imposed for the whole of one's professional life, starting the year after registration.

Ecm courses determine, also, the effectiveness of Insurance. From 2023-2025, it is necessary to have accrued at least 70% of the credits (about 105) to make professional indemnity policies valid. Missing this quota renders the insurance policies ineffective, transforming the Ecm not only into a deontological requirement but also into a practical necessity for professional coverage.

The CME criteria are undoubtedly an additional incentive for all healthcare professionals who are always called upon to update their knowledge and skills in order to guarantee the best possible and most modern healthcare services for their patients. Continuing education is of absolute value to all healthcare professionals. And those who will not be up to date, with the fulfilment of the credits, risk being left without insurance protection in case of litigation.

Sanctions and Rewards

Non-achievement of the required credits may lead to disciplinary sanctions by the professional association, including suspension. And if the sanction is born as a reinforcement of the moral and deontological obligation, acting as a deterrent, the system also needs to provide for the possibility of a reward and not just the mere formal obligation to achieve credits in the prescribed number.

Doctors, in fact, are increasingly caught between bureaucratic and legislative obligations and risk being perceived as bearers of 'socially dangerous' behaviour, in the usual and frequent logic of 'divide and rule'. In recent years, the increase in workloads as a result of the well-known staff shortages, not infrequently involves 70 hours of work per week, on average equivalent to 10 hours per day, turning time into a rarer currency than money itself. Unless human relations are further sacrificed, unless personal and emotional life is sacrificed, it then becomes more difficult under these conditions to find time, concentration and strength even for further training.

The bonus system currently only consists of the awarding of certain bonuses. As for the professional organisations, it is desirable that they constantly promote the continuous training of the category, alongside the trade unions, giving a strong and immediate participation, aimed at enhancing the role that doctors and health professionals have and must have.

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