Developing an institutional policy on conflict of interest in CME activities

Abstract

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education has adopted a new guideline concerning commercial support of CME activities that states: “An accredited sponsor shall have a policy on conflict of interest applicable to CME activities.” This guideline is the result of several federal investigations of health care professionals with financial ties to a commercial company who perform research and make educational presentations related to the company's products. The AMA and the AAMC have recently developed guidelines for conflicts of interest involving research that use full disclosure of relationships as the primary remedy. When full disclosure is applied to CME activities, a speaker discloses conflicting or potentially conflicting interests to participants at the CME activity, allowing the participants to evaluate and adjust for the possible influence of the disclosed interest. The general principle of full disclosure is clear, but detailed definitions are needed to identify situations constituting conflict of interest, the procedures for disclosure, and possible responses to failure to disclose. An initial draft of a policy on conflict of interest is presented with a discussion of operational issues and some options for implementing the policy. Some generally recognized standards need to be developed and publicized so that institutions can determine whether a particular policy would be overly restrictive or inadequate. The organizations most likely to develop nationally recognized standards are the AMA or the AAMC. Whatever the guidelines, the implementation of routine procedures for disclosing conflicts of interest will increase the work associated with producing certified CME activities.