CTH® Renewal
CTH® Renewal & Continuing Professional Development
To maintain their CTH® credential, candidates who received their certificate must complete required activities and apply for renewal every 5 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 must accumulate a minimum of 100 professional development points during each five-year renewal cycle. At least 50 points must be earned through Continuing Education (CE) activities related to travel medicine. The remaining points may be earned through approved professional development activities, such as clinical practice, teaching, presentations, publications, leadership, or other activities recognized by ISTM. All activities must support ongoing competency in travel medicine and align with the CTH® Body of Knowledge. Supporting documentation may be requested as part of ISTM’s audit process.
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 5-year renewal is required. During the renewal process, certificates remain valid until December 31 of the same year. By January 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 (of 100 points earned during the five-year renewal cycle, including at least 50 points in CE and 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.).
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