CME Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is The Children's Hospital CME Office requiring the use of a Financial Disclosure Slide for CME activities?
The use of a Financial Relationships Disclosure slide was approved by The Children's Hospital Continuing Education Council in March 2006. The slide further demonstrates our commitment to comply with Full Faculty Disclosure requirements. This mechanism informs our learners if such a relationship exists, or no relationships have been identified. The information is communicated to the learner prior to the commencement of the educational activity, whether there are financial relationships to be disclosed or not. We find that this is the most reliable way to communicate financial relationships to learners.
Per ACCME Standards for Commercial Support: An individual who refuses to disclose relevant financial relationships will be disqualified from being a planning committee member, a teacher, or an author of CME, and cannot have control of, or responsibility for, the development, management, presentation or evaluation of the CME activity.
Per ACCME Standards for Commercial Support: Educational materials that are part of a CME activity, such as slides, abstracts and handouts, cannot contain any advertising, trade name or a product-group message.
Why is the Continuing Medical Education Office requesting to review my power point presentation for CME activities at which I present?
There are several new guidelines/requirements that the ACCME has with respect to the use of any trade names or other commercial information in a presentation or on a handout. One of them is that trade names should not be used in these materials. We often find the inadvertent use of trade name utilization instead of the generic designation for medications, devices or other products which are being discussed with respect to diagnosis or therapy. The brand names constitutes product placement as well as product recognition and therefore, constitutes commercial bias. Slides should not contain images of trademarked medical devices or pharmaceutical agents or any product logos. Other common products (such as brand names of foods, lotion, soaps, shampoos etc.) may also be disqualified, if a medical or therapeutic use is being discussed in the context of the presentation. Information about, or links to any commercial websites are also prohibited if that website offers diagnostic or therapeutic products or services, or other health care related goods for sale. Links to non commercial websites (.org .gov .edu) are acceptable in any case. For the purposes of the ACCME, commercial entities that provide direct care to patients are excluded from these strictures. Please note that we do not ask faculty to change the educational content of their talk.
Helpful Hints for Avoidance of Commercial Bias
