In Bad News for Hospital-based CME providers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not include a broad exception for CME in the final version of the Stark Law, as the American Medical Association had requested and many CME...

The CME enterprise has had a few rough years. Some physicians requested or accepted too much honoraria for too little work. Some educational presenters turned a blind eye to science while winking at promotion. And some employees of organizations...

When Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City stopped accepting commercial support for its continuing medical education activities last January, many at the institution had their doubts that the program would survive. “Our staff was...

The continuing medical education community is under attack by the government and the media for allowing pharmaceutical industry marketing messages to creep into educational activities. But how often do physician participants perceive commercial...

I read your article “Rethinking the Lifeline” (December 2007) addressing the federal scrutiny of pharma funding of CME. At the end of the article you asked for other strategies that have been developed to ensure CME's independence. We at the New...

As I write this, the presidential candidates are crusading through the neighboring state of New Hampshire in anticipation of what promises to be an exciting and unpredictable primary and election year. One thing is certain: healthcare is a top...

A coalition of nine organizations recently received a $12.5 million grant from Pfizer to develop a CME program on tobacco cessation that's expected to reach more than 600,000 doctors over three years...

More time, more money, more frustration. As CME providers know all too well, pharmaceutical companies' new grant application processes, created in response to the regulatory environment, have made it much more difficult to get commercial support...

The buzz at the Annual Conference of the National Task Force on CME Provider/Industry Collaboration, held in October, was all about the FAQ document the Accreditation Council for CME released less than a week before the meeting. The guidelines in...

To strengthen CME's credibility in the face of increasing government, public, and media scrutiny, CME professionals must demonstrate their competence in developing effective and independent programs. That was one of the strong themes that emerged...