Seton Hall Law School 's Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy Releases White Paper Recommending Reform of Drug & Device Promotion

The recommendations regarding industry support of CME:

• A paradigm shift to end commercial support for CME should be undertaken. This will require fundamental change in practice by industry and by organized medicine, which must design less costly, professionally-driven and controlled mechanisms for CME.

• In the interim, as CME makes this substantial transition, conflicts of interest in CME should be more fully disclosed and managed. Specifically, disclosure to CME providers and attendees by physicians and other speakers should identify the nature and magnitude of the speaker’s financial interests, with such interests defined broadly to include financial relationships and support for the speaker’s academic department.

• The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) should issue more specific guidelines that address financial disclosure, circumstances when safeguards such as independent review are required to manage a conflict of interest, and criteria to determine when conflicts should preclude participation by a presenter. A physician’s role promoting a product should preclude his or her participation as a speaker at an accredited CME event for that product.

Click here to access the white paper.