Guidelines for CME Accredited Presentations

Disclosure Information

• In Advance of the Course: All individuals engaged in course planning, content development, or presentation (i.e., course directors, planning committee members, moderators, speakers, etc.) must complete and submit a financial disclosure form for review and approval well in advance of the course. A review process is in place to manage and resolve any possible conflicts of interest.

• In the Course Materials: A Summary listing must be compiled (and distributed to the course attendees as part of their course materials) of all faculty disclosures.

• At the Course: Each confirmed faculty must share their disclosure information verbally and with a slide to the course attendees at the beginning of the presentation. A statement must be made even if there are no financial relationships to disclose.
  
  See sample slide on the CME website for your reference. Please notify our office if you would like the sample slide e-mailed to you.

Fair Balance

Presentations should be free of commercial bias for or against any product. Statements about products should be objective and should be based on scientific methods generally accepted in the medical community.

To facilitate fair balance, speakers should:

• Disregard any attempts by commercial supporters to influence the content of their presentation (to include selection of topics and/or speakers).

• Use generic, rather than trade names of products.

• When using data from unpublished studies on file with a commercial entity, confirm that the study methodology is sound, and be prepared to produce the study if requested to do so by the CME provider.

Discussion of Off-Label

CME courses provide an educational forum in which off-label uses may be discussed. However, speakers discussing off-label uses should indicate that the product is not labeled for the use under discussion or that the product is still investigational.

Additional Information

More information on accreditation requirements can be found in the ACCME document "Standards for Commercial Support of Continuing Medical Education." To view or download the complete text, go to the ACCME Web site at www.accme.org.

Alternative Format

This information is also available as a PDF document.