State of Play of CME in Europe in 2013: Proceedings from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the European CME Forum

Abstract

European CME Forum is a not-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to bringing together all stakeholder groups with an interest in European Continuing Medical Education (CME) in order to promote multi-channel discussion in an independent and neutral environment. This report summarises the presentations and discussions that took place at the Sixth Annual Meeting of the European CME Forum, held in London on the 14th and 15th November 2013, which was preceded by a series of ‘Day 0’ meetings as pre-meeting sessions for delegates from specific interest groups. The predominant target audience comprised people with an interest in European CME including the accreditation bodies, scientific societies, education providers, industry and European medical communications agencies. The year prior to the meeting saw the introduction of new accreditation standards from UEMS-EACCME, with other accreditors examining how they should be evolving their own; the introduction of the US Physicians’ Payment Sunshine Act and its rather unexpected ramifications in Europe; pharmaceutical companies also starting to employ the grant process for funding CME, and their own increasing insistence on being hands-off from CME programmes. This in turn has led to education providers needing to be more knowledgeable and accountable and looking for their own guidance to help them navigate these evermore complicated waters. Against this back-drop, session themes for the sixth annual meeting were focused on sharing best practices and identifying what constitutes good CME in practice, discussing the role of industry in CME, summarising the latest trends relating to accreditation in Europe, discussing the current legal and regulatory frameworks impacting on CME, and communicating new innovative CME ideas (e.g. relating to e-learning).