CME council announces new guidelines for speakers

CHICAGO — Revised guidelines for providers and speaker participants in continuing medical education activities were released last week by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the body that oversees the awarding of CME credit. The new standards are expected to be fully implemented by next year, according to the ACCME.

The updated Standards for Commercial Support describes practices the ACCME deems appropriate to ensure that CME activities are “independent, free of commercial bias and beyond the control of persons or organizations with an economic interest in influencing the content of CME,” the ACCME stated.

In short, the group stated on its Web site, “CME providers must be guided by what is in the best interest of the public … always deferring to independence from commercial interests, transparency and keeping CME separate from product promotion — as basic guiding principles.”

The new standards call for a “resolution of personal conflicts of interest,” which may apply to anyone who may be in a position to control the content of a CME activity, according to the ACCME. It is the responsibility of the organization providing the CME to manage the conflict “in a manner that is in the best interest of the public,” the guidelines state.

According to the guidelines, if an individual with control over CME content has a commercial conflict of interest, either the financial relationship must change or the person’s control over the content must be altered, the ACCME stated.

No longer will it be acceptable for physicians simply to identify financial disclosure to CME participants, the ACCME stated.

“Formal CME activities are now being held to a higher standard than simple disclosure in assuring independence from commercial influences,” the new guidelines state.

Physicians who do not release financial disclosures to CME providers will be prohibited from speaking at the CME event, the ACCME stated.

According to a CNN.com report, under the new standards anecdotal observations by physicians would be replaced with results of systemic clinical trials, and any review of journal literature would have to include negative as well as positive results.

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