CME credits are an important part of your continuing education. Relevant, high quality courses help you stay up to date on the latest best practices in your field. Some CME providers achieve this mission with commercial support, which may allow them to offer additional services to attendees without raising costs or reduce the total cost of attending the CME course. Commercially supported CME is one element of a much larger aspect of the healthcare field: physician-industry relationships, which more than 80% of physicians engage in.

Just like in healthcare as a whole, commercial support for CME can be beneficial; however, it can also introduce bias or conflict of interest between corporate goals and patient needs. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) guidelines for commercial support and other similar industry standards keep financially motivated content out of CME.

Guidelines for Commercial Support

Multiple organizations provide guidance for both CME companies and manufacturers interested in producing commercially supported continuing education.

ACCME Standard 4: Manage Commercial Support Appropriately

Part of the larger Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, Standard 4 outlines how CME providers should navigate commercial support. Financial support must be accurately documented and clearly disclosed without any brand elements or messages before the CME activity takes place. This support cannot be used to cover individual learners’ expenses or education. It can, however, be used to lower the cost of attending for all learners.

AMA Principles of Medical Ethics

One of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Principles of Medical Ethics directly comments on the importance of continuing education and patient education. Opinion 9.2.6 expands further, stating physicians should “Choose activities that are carried out in keeping with ethics guidance and applicable professional standards” and decline compensation for participation beyond their CME allowance. Opinion 9.2.7 speaks to the physicians designing CME for their peers, encouraging them to “Be transparent about financial relationships that could potentially influence educational activities” and “mitigate potential influence” with processes like peer reviews.

Industry Standards

The device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and other organizations providing commercial support also follow guidelines to ensure marketing and sales activities are ethical. Some of these guidelines are voluntary, while others are enforceable.

• Office of Inspector General (OIG) General Compliance Program: Compliance guidance for all healthcare stakeholders.
• AdvaMed Code of Ethics: Guidance on “ethical interactions and relationships with health care professionals” for medical technology companies.
• PhRMA Code on Interactions With Health Care Professionals: Guidance for fostering relationships between providers and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that “benefit patients” and “enhance the practice of medicine.”
• Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Industry-Supported Scientific and Educational Activities Guidance: Guidance for physician-industry relationships outside the scope of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Federal laws also regulate the interactions between providers and industry, including the Physician Payments Sunshine Act and several fraud laws.

Why Choose Commercial Free CME?

If so many rules exist to keep physician-industry relationships—including those formed by commercial support in CME—unbiased, why should you choose commercial free CME?

As the AMA states, CME presented without commercial support “promotes confidence in the independence and integrity of professional education.” When you participate in commercial free CME, you can expect relevant, high quality education focused on clinical excellence and patient needs. While these traits are possible within commercially supported CME, removing industry from continuing education ensures information contains no bias toward products, technologies, or other solutions that may not be in your patients’ best interests.