Although the proponents of an industry free CME environment haven't a shred of evidence to back up their recommendations, according to the article the inquisition is winning, with industry support way down.
Some of the negative consequences:
Decreased Funding Has Significantly Affected Management of Grand Rounds, Extended CME Events, and Other Educational and Social Functions in Academic Departments...
As a result of decreased support, many departments reported that they engage fewer nationally-renowned, out-of-the-geographic-area speakers for Grand Rounds and CME conferences...
The costs of providing Category I CME credit has led some academic departments to reduce or abandon providing Category I credits for attendees at Grand Rounds and/or other CME conferences...
Several departments described how their traditional annual CME conferences, ordinarily scheduled for 1 or 2 days, sometimes over a weekend, designed for local, regional, and occasionally national audiences, had become too costly to maintain in their previous forms. Because industry contributions frequently made the difference between making and losing money on such activities, the cuts in funding over the past few years have forced retrenchment, and, in some cases, abandonment, of these activities.
Several programs described reducing the number of high-profile, out-of-town speakers in the line-up, relying more heavily on their own faculties, and reducing meal-service at these events. Several departments found these 1–2 day conferences increasingly to be money-losers and reported that they were discontinuing them entirely...
Work-arounds academic departments have tried include seeking donations, “suggested donations” taken at the door, and bake sales and related events.
1 comment:
I work at a the large non-profit medical association... the CME folks are down the hall from me. It's rather humorous to see the ridiculous hoops that our staff jump thru just to kow-tow before ACCME... all in an effort to make sure that we can move from having our attendees mark "no evidence of industry bias" 99.5% of the time to 99.6%. It has destroyed the moral of many a productive staff member to have to ask for disclosure forms for the 19th time from the same physician. What a waste.
Post a Comment