Demand for Online CE Grows
Clinicians continue to embrace new forms of online learning according to a survey of 801 clinicians conducted by Elsevier's Office of Continuing Medical Education (EOCME),
AcademicCME, and ArcheMedX in the first half of 2013.
The 2013 Joint Survey of Healthcare Professionals Continuing Education Preferences revealed that 97% of surveyed clinicians will increase or maintain their use of traditional online CME, which coincides with a significant overall trend to reduce participation in live meetings. Another key finding was that nearly 4 in 10 of surveyed clinicians plan to increase their participation in Virtual Co...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 24, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Physician Payment Sunshine Act: Open Payments Technology Vendor Mired in Healthcare.Gov
Discussion
Although CGI may have separate staff working on the Open Payments website, the recent glitches on Healthcare.gov should raise concerns for those Sunshine and transparency stakeholders eagerly awaiting the first publication of data in September 2014.
There may be some hope for CGI because the Open Payments website certainly has distinct differences from Healthcare.gov. For example, Open Payments is not being used to purchase or look for health insurance and does not require the same type of interaction or assistance with certified navigators to find health insurance. However, there are also similarities b...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 24, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
CME Coalition Releases Responsible Logo Use Guidelines
In 2011, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) issued a call for comment regarding the use of logos from commercial supporters of accredited CME programs. The proposal stated that CME providers could communicate the names of commercial supporters in text format only, and cannot include corporate logos or any mention or description of other units within the commercial interest corporate structure.
More recently, the ACCME issued a proposal that would amend the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support; specifically SCS 4.3 and 6.4. The proposal would prohibit educational materials that are pa...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 17, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Most US Med Schools Have Mediocre Conflict Of Interest Policies
Over the past several years, medical schools have come under withering scrutiny for their relationships with drug and device makers. A new study, however, indicates that US medical schools are improving, but nearly two-thirds still lacked policies to limit financial ties in at least one area that was examined, including gifts, meals, samples, and payments for travel, consulting, and speaking.
For instance, policies that were classified as moderate, permissive or non-existent remain the norm in 11 of 12 areas. Nearly a third of medical schools still have no policy prohibiting ghostwriting. And most either do not have a poli...
Source: Pharmalot - October 16, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Physician Payment Sunshine Act: Listing of Resources for Open Payments
This report is of particular interest to those stakeholders who are currently gearing up for implementation and compliance with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act a government surveillance and monitoring program targeting manufacturers' payments to physicians and teaching hospitals. One of the main requirements under thereporting provisions is that manufacturers and GPOs report a physician's name,address, NPI number, and other identifying information all based on informationin the NPPS database.
Physician Payment Sunshine Act: CMS Teleconference Offers Future Clarification and Links to New Patient-Physician Brochures
Th...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 16, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
CME: Drop in Federal Government Attendance at Meetings and Conventions Becoming a Trend
This past week the government shut down has caused at least one meeting the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society convention in Boston to witness several of their FDA faculty drop off the program and return to Washington rather than give their talks. This may be a temporary occurrence but as a trend national CME meetings are witnessing fewer and fewer federal government faculty and attendees.
Over the last few years, the medical meeting industry has seen several challenges such as increased government regulation and oversight as well as shrinking budgets and slow economic growth. For example, earlier this year we...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 7, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Continuing Medical Education Courses Decreased Antibiotic Use in Italy
Inappropriate and unnecessary antibiotic prescribing has contributed greatly to a worldwide problem of antimicrobial resistance. Prescribing practices vary widely. In Europe, for example, frequency of antibiotic prescribing differs threefold between countries with the highest and lowest antibiotic use. A similar disparity has been documented in northern and southern regions of Italy.
Italy has one of the highest antibiotic prescribing rates in Europe, however, prescriptions decreased by 5.3% in 2010 following two national information campaigns during the winters of 2009 and 2010.
Systematic reviews have shown that ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 3, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
ACCME FAQ’s on Commercial Interests: Further Defines the ACCME Process for Faculty Financial Interests
The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) recently produced a series of new Ask ACCME Q&A to regarding commercial support of CME activities. Below are the new FAQs.
As a reminder, the definition of "commercial interest" can be found within the ACCME Policies and Definitions.
What are examples of those in control of content as described in Standard for Commercial Support (SCS) 2.1?
SCS 2.1 requires that the accredited provider "must be able to show that everyone who is in a position to control the content of an education activity has disclosed all relevant financial relationships wi...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 30, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Physician Payment Sunshine Act: CME Coalition FAQ Supplement
In August of this year, we reported that the CME Coalition released a comprehensive guidebook to provide clear rules for participation in Sunshine-exempt Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities.
We have written about the guidebook previously, along with our numerous Sunshine-related posts.
The CME Coalition's Sunshine Act Compliance Guide will: "provide clarity on the CME Sunshine exemption to medical education providers, CME event sponsors, commercial supporters and physicians."
Consequently, the CME Coalition announced last week that it has updated the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section of ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 30, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Tools to Determine the Economic Impact of CME
CME clearly has tremendous value for helping improve the care physicians provide and the outcomes patients receive. Various studies have shown that CME has improved patient outcomes in areas such as multiple sclerosis, hypertension, COPD, ICU patients, improved taking of family history by physician assistants, Sepsis, healthcare-associated infections, reduction in CT scans, and several other areas.
While such outcomes can easily be measured in longer lives or less pain or adverse side effects, a pressing problem that has faced CME over the years is showing how such education can produce dollar savings in patient ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 23, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
ACCME September Update: Board of Directors Received Overwhelming Support for Simplifying the Accreditation System
The ACCME has released the executive summary of its Board of Directors meeting, held July 11– 12, 2013 at its Chicago offices. We have covered previous ACCME Board of Directors' meetings in
previous posts.
Accreditation and Recognition Decision Making
The ACCME ratified 60 accreditation and reaccreditation decisions. This included 17 CME providers that received Accreditation with Commendation (28%), which confers a 6-year term of accreditation. The list of accredited providers on our Web site has been updated to reflect the July 2013 accreditation decisions.
The Board reviewed accreditation decisio...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 9, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Made it to Amsterdam for ESC 2013
Hi all,
I arrived yesterday in the Netherlands. I am here to help cover the 2013 European Society of Cardiology Congress. I consider ESC Congress to be the euro version of AHA. The meeting is very large, encompassing all aspects of cardiology, including an electrophysiology sections. There is also significant coverage for Sports’ Cardiology. As an electrophysiology columnist for theHeart.org, rhythm topics will be my first responsibility, but I’ll be tempted to delve into other areas, especially the endurance sports arena. Europeans also have strong interests in prevention.
A couple of note keeping items:
I am ...
Source: Dr John M - August 31, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
CBI Forum on Independent Medical Education and Grants 2013 – Includes Give and Take Sunshine Panel
Now in its 11th year, CBI's Forum on Independent Medical Education and Grants offers a deep dive into topics related to the regulatory landscape, stakeholder expectations, effective needs assessment, outcomes management and more! Convening more than 400 supporters, providers, medical societies and associations over the years, this is the go-to event for benchmarking and networking with industry leaders.
Join industry professionals September 10-11 in Philadelphia to participate in the most interactive forum yet, including a participatory education workshop, rotating roundtable series and customized tracks for pharma/...
Source: Policy and Medicine - August 29, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Comments on an Upcoming Conference on Neurodegenerative Diseases
I received a brochure in the mail advertising an upcoming medical conference: From Neurodegeneration to Brain Health: An Integrated Approach. It's a two-day event to be held on October 25-26, 2013, in Cleveland and sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals. It caught my attention for a few reasons:
The conference is clearly designed to showcase the talent of Case Western Reserve Medical School and its associated health system with 19 faculty members from the institution and seven from other institutions. This types of disease is obviously an area of expertise for the scho...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 27, 2013 Category: Pathologists Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Business Hospitals and Healthcare Delivery Lab Processes and Procedures Laboratory Industry Trends Medical Education Medical Research Source Type: blogs
