Should Doctors Earn CME Credit For Watching 'The Pitt'?

By Kristina Fiore

Since "The Pitt" has been hailed for its medical accuracy, perhaps doctors and nurses should earn continuing medical education (CME) credits for tuning in.

That was the suggestion made by Tony Youn, MD, in a social media post that has garnered more than 25,000 likes.

And in a poll accompanying the pitch, 94% of more than 3,000 respondents said they should get credit, while only 6% said it's "not real education."

"I seriously learn more watching 'The Pitt' than I do at some of the courses at the medical conferences that I go to," Youn, a plastic surgeon, said in the post.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), which accredits organizations to provide CME activities, said it doesn't accredit individual activities, nor does it offer educational activities for CME credit.

However, CME can be "offered by providers when the activity can demonstrate learning and skill development by the healthcare professional, and it's up to the accredited provider to be able to show that for any activity they offer," ACCME President and CEO Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, said in a statement.

The show's "secret weapon" is its co-executive producer Joe Sachs, MD, an emergency physician who attended both medical school and film school in California. Sachs and executive producer R. Scott Gemmill also previously worked together on the show "ER."

While filming "The Pitt," they have emergency physicians on site to watch for discrepancies, help choreograph medical activity, and correct medical pronunciations, Gemmill and Sachs previously said.

Jeremy Faust, MD, has been reviewing episodes of season 2 of the show, and also has hailed it for its accuracy.

"I really just admire the creators of the show for making it this literal and this well done," Faust said in his review of season 2, episode 1. Faust said the idea of earning CME for watching the show has occurred to him as well, though CME often requires "a lot of paperwork."

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