The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) is considering offering an accreditation flagging CME as being free of drug and device industry support—a kind of Good Housekeeping Seal for CME.

The accrediting body issued a call for public comment on the proposal, saying: “The ACCME recognizes that some stakeholders want to differentiate between CME that does include relationships with industry from CME that does not include relationships with industry. To clarify this differentiation, the ACCME will consider creating a new designation and review process for providers that wish to identify their program of CME as one that does not utilize funds from commercial interests that have been donated to support continuing medical education.”

Such programs, ACCME said, would not accept any commercial support for any CME activity or any part of its CME program and would not use funds from advertising or promotion paid for by a commercial interest to underwrite costs of CME.

ACCME is also considering a similar designation for programs that do not use teachers or authors “that have acted for a commercial interest in promotional and marketing activities.”

And ACCME is considering setting up an independent CME funding entity that would collect and disburse unrestricted CME funds from industry sources. The group is accepting public comments on all three proposals through May 21.

Earlier in April, the accrediting body announced that it was no longer considering a ban on commercial support of CME.