CME providers will face more confusion and bureaucracy when soliciting commercial support for their activities, Bruce Bellande, PhD, told attendees at the Alliance for CME annual conference. The Alliance executive director’s observations were echoed throughout the January 21 to 24 meeting at the Hilton Atlanta, which drew nearly 1,200 attendees and 72 exhibitors.
Bellande, speaking during a session on system constraints to CME progress, said pharma executives attending last fall’s Medical Education Forum, sponsored by Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine, indicated that grant proposals are now more heavily scrutinized and current educational models are questioned—the trickle-down effect of increased scrutiny of medical education by government and professional organizations. Bellande and others also noted that Web-based grant applications are likely to become the norm and that medical affairs departments, not marketing departments, are increasingly calling the shots.
“We’re going to see ever-accelerating changes as the industry educates itself and implements these changes,” he concluded.
For more coverage of the Alliance for CME conference, and the changing landscape of commercial support, watch for the March/April issue of Medical Meetings .