Maybe it's because all four of my grandparents were immigrants, or maybe it's because I grew up in a neighborhood created for United Nations diplomats and their families, where I was surrounded by people from around the world — but anything that...

As we reported in the February 6 edition of MM's e-newsletter, Medical Meetings Extra, the issue of whether or not CME providers should be certified was a hot topic of discussion at this year's Alliance for CME annual meeting. A reader responded...

“When the new draft Standards for Commercial Support were released in April, they were greeted with a big sigh of relief from CME providers — make that a big sigh of relief and some yawns,” says Jack Kues, PhD, assistant dean for CME, University...

CLAUSE: In With the Outside Crowd ...

The definition of commercial interest in the new Standards has stimulated some debate. Standard 1.1 defines a commercial interest as any proprietary entity producing healthcare goods or services. Non-healthcare-related companies are exempt, as...

David Baldwin, MPA, has joined the Accreditation Council for CME in Chicago as manager of accreditation services. Baldwin most recently served as the manager of CME accreditation for the American Academy of Family Physicians, Leawood, Kan., where...

Until recently, the Internet has been the Wild West of the CME world. Lots of providers have stampeded the Web with online courses, but little had been done to measure their effectiveness in increasing physician knowledge or changing behaviors...

While the overall response to the new Standards has been very positive, there is one aspect that is generating concern among CME providers. Standard 4.5 says that a provider cannot use a commercial interest as the agent providing a CME activity to...

The Accreditation Council for CME's policy on the Internet states: “The accredited provider must be able to document that it owns the copyright for, or has received permissions for use of, or is otherwise permitted to use copyrighted materials...

Mexico City, El Presidente Intercontinental Hotel, March 11, 2004, 6 a.m. The ringing phone startled me out of a deep sleep. With the opening of the Foro Internacional Médico, the largest meeting of Spanish-speaking physicians in the world, so...