Here's another quiz question from today's forum at the Alliance meeting:
Honorarium received for CME speaking for which commercial support has been received creates a personal conflict of interest.
True
False
The answer, which 77 percent of the audience got right, was false. An audience member said she has had speakers decline to speak because of worries about perceived conflict in this type of circumstance, especially from faculty involved in managed care. Another audience member said that it's part of the CME provider's educational process to help faculty understand that the provider is the one getting the grant and providing the honoraria. It doesn't come direct from pharma. A panelist representing a pharma company added that another way to get around the problem is to tell the faculty member that s/he can donate the honorarium to a specialty society or other interest so the perception of conflict and/or bias doesn't come up.
