CME Compliance: Commercial Support

1. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Commercial support is defined as financial or in-kind contributions given by a commercial interest, which is used to pay all or part of the costs of a CME activity. A commercial interest is defined as any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.

2. CME Compliance: Commercial Support What can commercial support be used for? • Educational materials • Honoraria for faculty, authors, or planners • Travel/lodging expenses for faculty, authors, or planners • Activity promotion • Audio-visual costs • Food and beverage

3. CME Compliance: Commercial Support If you plan to seek commercial support to help fund your activity, you must do so through the official LSU channels: Step 1 Identify the potential source of commercial support and determine how much you want to request.

4. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Step 2 Fill out all application materials that are required by the commercial interest for submission. You may require some documents from the CME office such as the LSU CME accreditation certificate, W-9, Mission Statement, etc. If an online application is used, fill out all fields and print it out, but do not submit it yet.

5. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Step 3 Submit your grant packet to the Office of Sponsored Projects for approval. You will need to include a yellow routing sheet, available on the LSUHSC website: http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/administration/rs/GrantsContractsProcessing.htm

6. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Step 4 After the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs signs the grant submission, it is ready to be submitted.

7. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Some important rules to remember: • A commercial interest cannot require you to accept advice or services from them concerning teachers, authors, or participants. They also cannot select or provide any educational content as a condition of contributing funds or services. • Educational materials cannot contain any advertising, trade name or product-group message.

8. CME Compliance: Commercial Support • Commercial support must be disclosed to the learners in the program materials, but disclosure may not include the use of a trade name or product-group message. • Disclosure also cannot include any corporate logos of a commercial interest. • A standard disclosure statement reads: “This activity is supported by an educational grant from (name of commercial interest).”

9. CME Compliance: Commercial Support • The content of your activity must promote improvements in healthcare, and not a specific business interest of commercial interest. • Presentations must also give a balanced view of therapeutic options. Use of generic names will contribute to impartiality. If trade names are used, the products of several companies should be named, not just those of one company.

10. CME Compliance: Commercial Support You CANNOT use commercial support for: • Travel, lodging, honoraria, or personal expenses for non-teacher, non-author, or non-planner participants of your activity. • Any social event or meal that takes precedence over educational events. • Any costs specifically prohibited under the terms of the Letter of Agreement with the commercial interest.

11. CME Compliance: Commercial Support All CME supported by commercial interests must have a written agreement between the provider (LSU) and the commercial interest which details the terms, conditions, and purposes of the commercial support, signed by representative of both parties. Finally, you must be able to produce accurate documentation detailing the receipt and expenditure of all commercial support.

12. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Post-Test: ACCME Compliant or Not? A pharmaceutical company contacts the LSU Department of Medicine and wants to send a speaker they have identified to deliver a Grand Rounds presentation. They have offered to pay all expenses relating to sending the speaker.

13. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Post-Test: ACCME Compliant or Not? A pharmaceutical company contacts the LSU Department of Medicine and wants to send a speaker they have identified to deliver a Grand Rounds presentation. They have offered to pay all expenses relating to sending the speaker. NOT COMPLIANT: A commercial interest may not select faculty (speakers) for any CME-certified activity.

14. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Post-Test: ACCME Compliant or Not? An orthopaedic device manufacturer is providing support for a workshop on spine injury repair. A representative calls the course director and they agree on the terms of how the money will be used.

15. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Post-Test: ACCME Compliant or Not? An orthopaedic device manufacturer is providing support for a workshop on spine injury repair. A representative calls the course director and they agree on the terms of how the money will be used. NOT COMPLIANT: There must be a written agreement between the CME provider and commercial interest.

16. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Post-Test: ACCME Compliant or Not? The LSU Section of Emergency Medicine is holding a 3-day course on the latest practice guidelines for ER physicians. They are going to provide handbooks with all presentations, and will pay the printing costs with money received from an educational grant from a pharmaceutical company.

17. CME Compliance: Commercial Support Post-Test: ACCME Compliant or Not? The LSU Section of Emergency Medicine is holding a 3-day course on the latest practice guidelines for ER physicians. They are going to provide handbooks with all presentations, and will pay the printing costs with money received from an educational grant from a pharmaceutical company. COMPLIANT: Commercial support may be used to pay for educational costs like printing program materials.

18. CME Compliance: Commercial Support QUESTIONS? Please contact the LSU CME office at (504) 568-2000 or email Doug Grigsby at dgrigs@lsuhsc.edu