Increased use and visibility of the CME Coalition’s suggested privacy policy can increase public awareness and confidence in the systems in place to protect inappropriate use or transfer of physician data.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrew Rosenberg, (202) 247-6301
In order to ensure that CME provider entities – both within and outside of the CME Coalition – have “best practices” in place with regard to their treatment of collected learner data, the CME Coalition today released a suggested privacy policy template for use by its members and the public at-large.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrew Rosenberg, (202) 247-6301
In order to ensure that CME provider entities – both within and outside of the CME Coalition – have “best practices” in place with regard to their treatment of collected learner data, the CME Coalition today released a suggested privacy policy template for use by its members and the public at-large.
“The CME Coalition and its members are committed to ensuring that continuing medical education and accredited providers meet the highest ethical standards in all regards,” stated Senior Advisor Andrew Rosenberg, “and this includes permitting only the proper use of physician data.”
Rosenberg continued, “While the CME provider community already appreciates the importance of prohibiting the inappropriate use of collected physician information, our template policy and call for its widespread use can only help to increase public confidence in CME.”
In developing this template policy, the CME Coalition mustered a “Privacy Policy Working Group” from within its ranks and retained the prominent Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter to design a “best practices” template for CME provider companies and organizations to adopt. While many organizations already have excellent privacy policies in place, the CME Coalition is making this template policy available to the public in order to increase widespread adherence to sound privacy policy and to increase physician confidence in the integrity of CME and its providers.
Although purely voluntary, and recognizing that each company/organization may collect or use data differently, the CME Coalition is recommending that CME providers adopt these, or similar, policies and prominently display them on their website for the public to see.
When reviewing this policy and considering using it, CME provider organizations should make sure to be aware of our lawyers’ cautionary warning:
Rosenberg continued, “While the CME provider community already appreciates the importance of prohibiting the inappropriate use of collected physician information, our template policy and call for its widespread use can only help to increase public confidence in CME.”
In developing this template policy, the CME Coalition mustered a “Privacy Policy Working Group” from within its ranks and retained the prominent Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter to design a “best practices” template for CME provider companies and organizations to adopt. While many organizations already have excellent privacy policies in place, the CME Coalition is making this template policy available to the public in order to increase widespread adherence to sound privacy policy and to increase physician confidence in the integrity of CME and its providers.
Although purely voluntary, and recognizing that each company/organization may collect or use data differently, the CME Coalition is recommending that CME providers adopt these, or similar, policies and prominently display them on their website for the public to see.
When reviewing this policy and considering using it, CME provider organizations should make sure to be aware of our lawyers’ cautionary warning:
“We’ve designed this to be for a company named ‘CME Provider’ and obviously the references to that name, as well as its website name, contact information, etc., will need to be replaced by any organization that uses the template. At least as important, the template is only useful insofar as it accurately describes the functions and practices of the website to which it pertains -- any statements in a website privacy policy that do not accurately reflect actual practices are the basis for claims of deception and misrepresentation. So great caution should be used...”
About the CME Coalition
The CME Coalition represents a broad collection of continuing medical education provider companies, in addition to other supporters of CME and the vital role it plays in the US health care system. Its member organizations provide, manage and support the development of healthcare continuing education programs that impact more than 500,000 physicians, nurses and pharmacists annually. Graduation from medical school and completion of residency training are the first steps in a career-long educational process for physicians. To take advantage of the growing array of diagnostic and treatment options, physicians must continually update their technical knowledge and practice skills. CME is a mainstay for such learning.
Contact:
Andrew Rosenberg
(202) 247-6301
arosenberg@thornrun.com
The CME Coalition represents a broad collection of continuing medical education provider companies, in addition to other supporters of CME and the vital role it plays in the US health care system. Its member organizations provide, manage and support the development of healthcare continuing education programs that impact more than 500,000 physicians, nurses and pharmacists annually. Graduation from medical school and completion of residency training are the first steps in a career-long educational process for physicians. To take advantage of the growing array of diagnostic and treatment options, physicians must continually update their technical knowledge and practice skills. CME is a mainstay for such learning.
Contact:
Andrew Rosenberg
(202) 247-6301
arosenberg@thornrun.com
