Commercial Support
Accreditation Council for CME Prohibits Commercial Supporter Content Review
In a development that surprised many CME professionals, the Accreditation Council for CME issued an FAQ document prohibiting providers from asking commercial...
Internal Peer Review: Too Close For Comfort?
The Case Teri Taintor is managing director of Health First Communication Co. (HFCC), an accredited provider. One year ago, she was promoted to the position...
ACCME: Time for Transparency
The buzz at the Annual Conference of the National Task Force on CME Provider/Industry Collaboration, held in October, was all about the FAQ document the...
Letters to the Editor
CME/Industry Relations I read with interest the article ACCME Draws the Line (September/October 2007, page 9). You did a nice job bringing to light some...
Best Practices for Getting Grants
More time, more money, more frustration. As CME providers know all too well, pharmaceutical companies' new grant application processes, created in response...
Rethinking the Lifeline
Does the commercial support system as it exists today inevitably compromise CME's independence? That's the question the Accreditation Council for CME...
How to Prevent Government Investigation of Pharmaceutical Meetings
It starts with a knock on the front door, usually of a lower-level employee, usually around supper time. The visitor, an agent from the Office of Inspector...
Ethical Hypothetical: CME Providers: Party Planners or Party Poopers?
The Case As the Meetings Coordinator for a medical center, you are thrilled to receive a request for proposal for a satellite symposium at an upcoming...
How to Evaluate Bias in Your CME Activities
With increasing concern about the issue of independence in CME, providers face continued pressure to demonstrate compliance with the Accreditation Council...
Shape CME's Future
For the first time, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education is initiating a review of the entire commercial support system, considering...
Accreditation Council for CME Responds to Senate Finance Committee CME Report
For the first time, the Accreditation Council for CME is initiating a review of the commercial support system that will include considering a full range...
Time to Clean Up
The CME system has to straighten its oversight--or risk government intervention...
Fight for CME
It's unclear how or when the pharmaceutical industry became the new whipping boy for the press and Congress alike. Fair or unfair, this is the new reality,...
Proposed Rules Threaten MECCs
The Accreditation Council for CME has proposed two new positions regarding the Standards for Commercial Support, one of which could have drastic consequences...
Spread the Word: CME Saves Lives
The Government has widened its probe into CME. Two months after the United States Senate Finance Committee issued its CME report, the Senate Special Committee...
How Medical Education and Communication Companies Should Respond to Accreditation Council for CME's New Definition of Commercial Interest
You've probably heard that the Accreditation Council for CME has proposed a revised definition of commercial interest. The new definition states: A commercial...
United States Senate Committee on Finance Releases CME Report
The United States Senate Committee on Finance issued a big wake-up call to the continuing medical education community on April 25 when it released a report...
ACCME's Reaction
We don't reject or refute [the Senate Finance Committee's] observations, says Murray Kopelow, MD, chief executive, Accreditation Council for CME. As the...
Senate CME Report: Bumpy Ride Ahead
The Senate Finance Committee report on CME, combined with extensive media coverage about the inappropriate relationships between doctors and the pharmaceutical...
Full Disclosure
The Case Dr. Hilary Heart, a renowned researcher and cardiologist, has been a frequent presenter for Bright Ideas University for the last two years. She...
