The ACCME announced they will not release any changes to their standards of commercial support until the end of 2009, stated in the ACCME Executive Summary of the Fall Board Meeting released today.
Couple of Key Points
ACCME's "Calls-for-Comment” "Regarding the independence of accredited continuing medical education.
· The ACCME continued its discussions on issues raised in policy proposals recently shared with the CME enterprise through ·Calls-for-Comment: The ACCME will continue discussions on these matters as it analyzes the feedback received, and will follow other national level discussions on these issues as they unfold.
· The issues presented in the calls·for comment will be on the next several Board agendas for ongoing discussion by the full Board.
· Additional input may be sought from selected groups.
· The ACCME does not plan on taking final action on these issues until the end of 2009.
This means no changes to the ACCME standards of commercial support at least until late in 2009.
Conflict of Interest
· The ACCME continues to refine its 'manner of acting' with respect to decision making and policy setting.
· ACCME recognizes that fundamental to the legitimacy of these processes at the ACCME is the identification and resolution of any conflicts of interest that might be present.
· As part of this process of refinement, the Directors and staff of ACCME participated in a special discussion with legal counsel and an invited expert on conflict of interest in the professions.
We applaud the ACCME for seeking outside council on this matter. The NAAMECC comments called into questions several key legal issues including the “State Actor” principle which I am sure was a part of the discussion.
Transparency
· Consistent with the spirit of increased transparency of the ACCME process and outcomes, the ACCME plans on sharing more data via ACCME's website.
· Beginning in 2009, the ACCME will be publishing to www.accme.org information descriptive of the accreditation decisions and associated findings by individual Criteria in a manner that does not allow for identification of individual providers.
· In addition, information will be added to the ACCME's published List of Accredited Providers- on www.accme.org about accreditation status and
· more detailed breakdowns of aggregated 'Annual Report- data by provider type and activity type, where applicable and or possible.
· The ACCME will communicate directly with accredited providers about the release of this information
Accreditation
· The ACCME ratified Accreditation, Reaccreditation, and Progress Report decisions for 83 providers.
· Of the 83 decisions for accreditation only 1 provider received Accreditation with Commendation, which is associated with a six-year term of accreditation
· Three initial applicants receiving Provisional Accreditation.
· Six providers received Non-accreditation from Initial Accreditation.
If only one received accreditation with commendation it means that perhaps the system should be reviewed to ensure that excellent organizations are not penalized.
These moves are an important sign that the ACCME is seriously taking into consideration the responses of the call for comment. We applaud the ACCME for seeking additional input before changing the system.