ASCRS criticizes new CME conflict-of-interest standards

FAIRFAX, Va. — The guidance document recently issued by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education has come under harsh criticism by the American Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

If the new standards are implemented, they “will undermine continuing medical education programs, suppress truthful speech, slow innovation and development of new products and therapies and hurt patient welfare,” ASCRS stated in a press release.

ASCRS is an ACCME-accredited CME provider, according to the ASCRS Web site.

At issue is the assumption that “anyone with any type of relationship with a commercial interest is immediately corrupted by that relationship,” said Warren Hill, MD, chairman of the ASCRS CME Advisory Committee, in the release.

The people who created phacoemulsification and IOL implantation “worked closely with industry,” said Priscilla P. Arnold, MD, ASCRS president. “Had the new conflict of interest restraints been in place at that time, cataract surgery … would not be what it is today.”

The same could be said of newly evolving technologies, such as IOLs for refractive correction and laser-based vision correction, Dr. Arnold said in the press release.

“What about those of us who work closely with industry in an area with only a few experts?” Dr. Hill asked. “Are none of us to give presentations for medical education?”

He said physicians can evaluate what they are told by a speaker when that speaker discloses all potential sources of bias.

He said ASCRS believes that the proper way to handle any speaker conflict of interest is full financial disclosure.

The new ACCME standards became effective last month. For more on the guidelines, click here.

SLACK Incorporated is an ACCME-accredited CME provider. SLACK publishes Ocular Surgery News and the OSN SuperSite.