Anti-industry activists continue to mislead the public about the rules and regulations governing accredited continuing medical education (CME) in order to promote their “pharma-scare” narrative. On the contrary, accredited CME is the trusted mainstay of post-graduate physician learning and provides the primary means by which innovation and discovery are brought to the patient bedside.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrew Rosenberg, (202) 247-6301
December 17, 2015 – Today, the CME Coalition responded to an opinion piece written by noted critics of continuing medical education (CME) affiliated with the group, Pharmed Out, in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
According to CME Coalition Senior Advisor Andrew Rosenberg, “It is becoming tiresome to have to respond to this continuous barrage of misinformation and outright untruths from PharmedOut, but we feel compelled to again correct the record.”
“First, PharmedOut is 100% wrong when they claim that ACCME, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, does not require the reporting of exhibit income. It patently does, and I would be happy to point them to the ACCME Annual Report, which clearly lists exhibit income as one of their reported categories.” Rosenberg continued, “And with respect to their accusations regarding the fact that in-kind costs such as equipment rental and the use of facilities are not reported to the ACCME, the reason is simple and straightforward: the determination was rationally made that it is impossible to accurately calculate the ‘value’ of allowing a CME program to borrow equipment or lab space for the purpose of educating doctors, and that in any case, there is no financial benefit of this support to any doctor.”
Further, the ACCME SCS already require accredited providers to implement and adopt robust conflict of interest policies and procedures prior to engaging a presenter or faculty (SCS 2), and the SCS mandate that individual presenters at CME programs to disclose potential conflicts of interest (SCS 6).
“Finally, the PharmedOut writers dishonestly declare that ACCME’s own materials state that ‘drug and device companies are allowed to control the content of accredited CME activities’ while conveniently failing to include the next sentence of the guidance that states: “In these circumstances, the accredited provider must be able to demonstrate that it has implemented processes to ensure employees of ACCME-defined commercial interests have no control of CME activity content that is related to clinical applications of the research/discovery or clinical recommendations concerning the business lines or products of their employer.”
Exciting changes in medicine are happening everyday with increasing frequency. Patients and society demand that our physicians receive information as quickly as possible, and that updates in treatment, diagnosis, and prevention are disseminated to physicians, and to the patient, as soon as practically possible. Without CME, this all falls apart.
And while we always welcome honest debate about the rules governing independent CME, there is no room in the discussion for PharmedOut’s relentless, helplessly biased campaign of misinformation.
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
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrew Rosenberg, (202) 247-6301
December 17, 2015 – Today, the CME Coalition responded to an opinion piece written by noted critics of continuing medical education (CME) affiliated with the group, Pharmed Out, in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
According to CME Coalition Senior Advisor Andrew Rosenberg, “It is becoming tiresome to have to respond to this continuous barrage of misinformation and outright untruths from PharmedOut, but we feel compelled to again correct the record.”
“First, PharmedOut is 100% wrong when they claim that ACCME, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, does not require the reporting of exhibit income. It patently does, and I would be happy to point them to the ACCME Annual Report, which clearly lists exhibit income as one of their reported categories.” Rosenberg continued, “And with respect to their accusations regarding the fact that in-kind costs such as equipment rental and the use of facilities are not reported to the ACCME, the reason is simple and straightforward: the determination was rationally made that it is impossible to accurately calculate the ‘value’ of allowing a CME program to borrow equipment or lab space for the purpose of educating doctors, and that in any case, there is no financial benefit of this support to any doctor.”
Further, the ACCME SCS already require accredited providers to implement and adopt robust conflict of interest policies and procedures prior to engaging a presenter or faculty (SCS 2), and the SCS mandate that individual presenters at CME programs to disclose potential conflicts of interest (SCS 6).
“Finally, the PharmedOut writers dishonestly declare that ACCME’s own materials state that ‘drug and device companies are allowed to control the content of accredited CME activities’ while conveniently failing to include the next sentence of the guidance that states: “In these circumstances, the accredited provider must be able to demonstrate that it has implemented processes to ensure employees of ACCME-defined commercial interests have no control of CME activity content that is related to clinical applications of the research/discovery or clinical recommendations concerning the business lines or products of their employer.”
Exciting changes in medicine are happening everyday with increasing frequency. Patients and society demand that our physicians receive information as quickly as possible, and that updates in treatment, diagnosis, and prevention are disseminated to physicians, and to the patient, as soon as practically possible. Without CME, this all falls apart.
And while we always welcome honest debate about the rules governing independent CME, there is no room in the discussion for PharmedOut’s relentless, helplessly biased campaign of misinformation.
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
[email protected]
