CTH® Renewal
CTH® Renewal & Continuing Professional Development
To maintain their CTH® credential, candidates who received their certificate beginning in 2011 must complete required activities and apply for renewal every 10 years. Renewal may be accomplished through participating in continuing professional development (CPD) activities directly relating to topics identified in the CTH® Body of Knowledge OR retesting (i.e., taking and passing the CTH® examination).
Candidates seeking renewal through CPD activities are required to accumulate 200 CPD points within the 10-year renewal period. At least 80 of the 200 points must be earned during the last 5 years of the renewal period. One hundred and forty (140) of the 200 points must be earned through participation in a minimum of three continuing education events defined as face to face, educational events and/or distance learning events.
Acceptable professional development activities include:
- participating in continuing education events;
- teaching, lecturing, speaking, and mentoring;
- publishing, including authoring, peer-reviewing, and serving on editorial boards;
- direct travel medicine patient care and clinical activities;
- committee/volunteer activities;
- clinical supervision of healthcare professionals, students or trainees;
- peer practice review/travel medicine practice audits; and
- serving as a travel medicine consultant.
Renewal Processes
- Applications for CTH Renewal are due 1 September in the year that the 10 year renewal is required. During the renewal process, certificates remain valid until December 31 of the same year. By January 6 of the following year, applicants will be sent notification of their renewal status.
- Renewal applications confirming the completion of the required number of professional development activities (200 points total, distributed as required) must be submitted in English to the ISTM Professional Team by 1 September in the renewal year through the online process.
- Between August and December, the ISTM CPD Committee will perform detailed audits of a randomly selected percentage of renewal applications. To avoid a delayed audit, all individuals submitting renewal applications are strongly encouraged to collect evidence and documentation of all professional development points claimed as they complete their point application tracker. (For examples of acceptable documentation, see descriptions under each category of professional development, such as Continuing Education events, Teaching and Mentoring activities, etc.).
Registration for CTH® renewal will open in mid-2026.
There are two options to maintain an active CTH®:
- Earning a specific number of points through the professional development activities in which most travel medicine practitioners already participate. The following activities will be included in this option:
- Educational Events
- In-Person: Local, State, Regional, National, International
- Conferences, courses, lectures, short courses
- Distance Learning Interactive Webinars and Webcasts
- Enduring Materials within Peer-reviewed Journals or Online
- In-Person: Local, State, Regional, National, International
- Completing Relevant Academic Coursework within Schools of Higher Learning
- Treating Patients/Practicing Travel Medicine
- Teaching, Lecturing, Speaking, including Invited Conferences, University Lecturing, Internal Teaching (e.g. Grand Rounds), Presenting Posters
- Publishing, including Authoring, Peer-reviewing, and Serving on an Editorial Board
- Committee/Volunteer Activities, including serving as a Volunteer or Committee Member with a Travel Medicine Society or in a Travel Medicine Related Activity in a Non-Travel Medicine Society
- Clinical Supervision of Health Care Professionals and/or Students and Trainees
- Peer Review/Practice Audits
- Serving as a Subject Matter Expert, including Expert Witnesses, Governmental & Supragovernmental Advisory Committees (National, Regional, Local, International), Consulting Activities
- Educational Events
- Retake the CTH® Examination