Cologne Consensus Conference A Meeting of the International Academy for CPD Accreditation A World Apart: We Are Together

The ninth annual Cologne Consensus Conference was held virtually on 10–11 September 2020. The two-day educational event was organised by the International Academy for CPD Accreditation (the Academy), a network of colleagues dedicated to promoting and enhancing continuing professional development (CPD) accreditation systems throughout the world. This year’s conference was hosted by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and once again planned in cooperation with the European Cardiology Section Foundation (ECSF) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The conference’s ninth iteration was originally slated to be a live meeting taking place in Chicago, Illinois, USA (home to the ACCME offices), but was moved to a fully online format due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Appropriately, the programme’s theme was A World Apart: We Are Together and focused on the continued alignment of global accreditation standards and increasing international collaborations. This conference report summarises the meeting content and discussions, including a description and formal adoption of the final Standards for Substantive Equivalency between Continuing Professional Development/Continuing Medical Education (CPD/CME) Accreditation Systems.