VLH.com offers AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)^TM intended for physicians. Depending on your state of licensure, this credit type can also apply to other occupations, such as PAs and APN/ARPNs. If you are not an allopathic physician, we strongly recommend that you consult your licensing board or review your continuing education requirements BEFORE joining VLH.com and completing programs.

VLH.com offers numerous courses that do indeed meet special state requirements. To view a list of our courses that meet special state CME requirements, please click your desired state on this page, then view the courses as listed by the special state CME topic they meet.

We work closely with state licensing authorities to ensure that our programs comply with those states' special CME requirements in topics such as medical errors prevention, medical ethics, infection control, and prescribing practices.

In many cases, certain states wish to see particular statements on your CME certificate, and we make every effort to supply those statements on your individual certificate.

If a CME auditor asks for evidence that one of our courses meets their requirements, please send them a copy of your CME certificate as the first step. You can download a printable CME certificate from the "Certificates" tab at any time (after you complete the course and pay for the certificate).

Actually, the better question is, "How much do certificates of participation cost?" We do not charge you to take courses, but rather, we charge a certificate fee of $25 per credit when you wish to view/print your certificate of completion.

After you become a member of our site, you can study/complete as many courses as you like at no further charge - unless you need to print a CME certificate.

Yes, you can. With permission, VLH.com publicly displays user comments that have been submitted on the post-activity surveys. We also display aggregate ratings data submitted by our users. You can view both the ratings data and the user comments on the "User Review" tab after clicking the "Learn More" or "Begin" button for any of our courses.

All our courses are "asynchronous," meaning they are NOT "live" courses that require you to "sign up" for a specific date or time.

Rather, to start a course, simply view the list of courses, click through to a desired course, and follow the onscreen instructions to study and complete the course at your own pace. Of course, you must Register a membership first before you are allowed to begin your study.

No, you do not. Passing a test is not an ACCME requirement for gaining a CME certificate. However, all VLH.com courses are highly interactive and require active physician participation. Participants can not receive a VLH.com CME certificate until they have proceeded through all obligatory pages of the course. Participants are not allowed to proceed to subsequent pages of the course until they have correctly answered all questions presented. Participants can reattempt questions with no penalty if they do not answer correctly on the first attempt.

Yes, you can. Simply close your web browser at the point you wish to pause a course. When you re-enter that same program, you will see a link on the Start page of each course asking you to "Click here to resume your study."

Yes you can, but you may not always be allowed to claim CME credit again. If the button on the Course page says "Begin," you can take a course for CME credit. If it says "Review," then you cannot take the course and claim CME credit (because you have previously completed it).

If you have previously completed a CME program and the button says "Begin" instead of "Review," then the CME sponsor has determined that the program has changed enough since the time you first completed it to allow you to claim CME credit again for completing it again.

The Florida Department of Health has decided that physicians can repeat a CME program to meet their special medical errors requirement, even if they cannot claim CME credit for doing so. You will see a notice about this when you place your mouse over the "Review" button of a medical errors CME program.

The NY DOH website does not yet list DOH-approved providers. This creates confusion because the DOH does link to the NY DOE's list of approved providers. However, the DOE does not approve training programs offered by physician organizations (such as Medical Directions). This is the responsibility of the DOH. To complicate matters, physicians who complete courses from DOH-approved providers, must report them to the DOE, which (of course) has no information on those providers. This problem is not unique to Medical Directions. The solution is to make sure that your CME certificate contains the DOH-approved Infection Control Provider number. If you indicated during registration that you are licensed in New York, then your VLH.com certificate for the "Infection Control for Physicians" course will display the DOH-approved Infection Control Provider number.

All our courses are sponsored solely by academic institutions or professional societies that have been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)^TM.

No, they are not. VLH.com does not offer any programs that have been underwritten by unrestricted educational grants from industry. All funding for VLH.com program development is generated from CME certificate fees or from federal research grants.

VLH.com offers AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)^TM intended for physicians. Depending on your state of licensure, this credit type can also apply to other occupations, such as DOs, PAs, and APN/ARPNs. If you are not an allopathic physician, we strongly recommend that you consult your licensing board or review your continuing education requirements BEFORE joining VLH.com and completing programs.

You earn CME credit/certificates by completing the required elements of a given program.

Some programs are smaller, consisting of 1-4 credits. Usually (though not always) you need to answer all mandatory questions in the program in order to earn the CME certificate.

Other programs are "modular," consisting of up to 16 credits or more. Usually you are allowed to complete portions of these courses and earn partial credit for the material you have studied/completed.

The course listings describe whether a course is modular or not, and therefore, whether you can earn partial credit for a given course. The Start page of each program provides further information on how to earn full or partial CME credit.

No, you do not.

However, our programs may include a pretest/posttest, or an exam following a patient case, but these tests/exams are solely for your own learning and self-assessment. We do not require a "passing" score in order to earn CME credits/certificates.

All your certificates for completed activities are stored on your Certificates page. To view/print your certificates, go to that page and follow the onscreen instructions.

You must print the certificates from your Web browser (after you pay for them and complete the post-activity survey). We can not email, fax, or otherwise send certificates to you.

The certificate fee is $25 for each credit that you claim. For example, if the course offers up to four (4) cme credits, but you only claim two (2) credits of activity, you pay $50.

You can pre-pay for certificates from the Members' Home page in the "Pre-Paid Funds" area, or you can pay your certificate fee after you complete each course.

For example, if you know you need 10 credits total, you can pre-pay $250 with a single transaction before you take any courses. Then, after you complete 10 credits of material, you can go to your Certificates page and follow the instructions to apply the $250 of certificate funds to your certificate(s). This saves you from having to complete multiple online credit card transactions.

On the other hand, if you only need a 2-credit certificate, you can pay for that certificate immediately after you complete the course.

To view/print your certificates, go to the Certificates page and follow the onscreen instructions.

If a certificate is not listed on your Certificates page, you probably did not complete all the required elements for that course.

The easiest way to confirm/deny this is to return to the program in question. If you see a link in the interface that says "Click here to resume your study," then you have not completed all the required elements (or reached the true final page of the program).

If you still have questions, contact us and we will investigate further.

At minimum, you need to Register your membership and pre-pay $25, which you will subsequently apply toward your first CME certificate.

After you become a member, you can study/complete as many courses as you like at no further charge - unless you need to print a CME certificate. The CME certificate fee is $25 per credit. You pay only for the CME credits you claim on your certificate.

You can pay your membership and/or certificate fees with any major credit card (Visa/MasterCard, American Express), as well as Discover. You can also pay by check. Further payment information is provided when you Register your membership.

We do not save, store, or reuse your credit card information after your transaction is completed. VLH employees cannot gain access to your credit card information.

Yes, you can. Simply select that payment option when you Register your membership or pay for additional CME certificate funds.

There is a $25 minimum charge to become a member of our site and access our content. If you find that you do need a CME certificate at a later date, you can use the $25 membership fee toward a 1-credit certificate.

Your membership does not expire, nor do any unused CME certificate funds in your account. After you Register your membership, you have ongoing use of our site.

You can pre-pay for additional CME certificates before you begin studying by clicking the "Add More" button in the "Pre-Paid Funds" area of your homepage (bottom of right column).

Or, you can pay for your certificate after you complete a given course. Simply follow the instructions on the Certificates page.

Your credit card statement will reflect a payment made to "The Virtual Lecture Hall" (and/or www.vlh.com).

Yes, you can. You can view/print receipts from the Certificates page.

We want you to be happy with our site and service. If you decide that our service is not for you, we will be glad to refund any unused CME funds up to 30 days after you join our site. We cannot make any refunds after 30 days, and we cannot refund money that has already been applied toward a certificate.

If you can remember either your username OR the email address you used to create your VLH account, click this link to retrieve your account information.

If you can not remember either your username or your registered e-mail address, contact us with your full name, and we will send your account information via email.

A cookie is a small piece of information that is stored on your computer. Only the Web site that creates the cookie can read it. Our Web site uses cookies to customize your learning experience and to ensure the security of your communications with us.

In order to use our site as a member, your Web browser must be configured to accept cookies. Cookies from The VLH are perfectly safe, and we do only track your activity when you are using our site. We will not compromise your privacy. (View our privacy policy.)

First, you should have a current Web browser installed on your computer. We do our best to optimize our site for either Internet Explorer or Firefox for either the PC or MAC platforms.

Secondly, you will need the following software installed or enabled in order for our content to display properly in your browser:

1. Web browser with JavaScript enabled. (JavaScript is usually enabled by default.)
2. Current version of the free Adobe Flash Player installed.
3. Current version of the free Adobe Reader installed. (Often installed on your computer system by default; enables viewing of PDF documents.)

Yes, you do. Your pop-up blocking software should "allow" pop-ups from our site, otherwise you may not be able to access important course tutorials that we display in pop-up windows.

If you see somebody else's first and/or last name displaying when you log in, this is probably because you are sharing a computer with another member of our site, and you are logged onto their account.

This is easily fixed. While you are signed into the other person's account, simply locate the "Sign Out" link in the upper right corner of the screen. Click that link, and you will be signed out. Now sign back into the site with your username and password, and your first and/or last name should display.

Technical support is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 A.M. until 5:30 P.M., MST. Please email us or call 520-770-7821 if your questions have not been answered here.