A recently passed report by the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) won’t have a significant effect on commercial funding for CME, pharma companies said.
“While we don’t expect there to be any significant changes in the way commercial support is requested, offered or managed moving forward, these new ethical guidelines should help to encourage other stakeholders (academia, government, payers and health systems) to assume a greater responsibility in the financial support of CME,” Maureen Doyle-Scharff, senior director, team lead, in Pfizer’s medical education group, told MM&M. “This will be good for CME, healthcare professionals and patients.”
Pamela Mason, director of the med ed grants office at AstraZeneca, concurred: “I do not expect that the CEJA recommendations will have a negative impact on industry funding of independent medical education…This is an important statement by CEJA and goes to the heart of why industry supports independent medical education.”
The report advises physicians who participate in CME to “strive to avoid” financial ties with industry, where possible. It was the fifth version to come before AMA’s House of Delegates.
The Alliance for CME testified against passage, saying the CEJA recommendations were not based on objective data and that current rules were adequate to prevent bias.
From the August 01, 2011 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
