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CME, Why Me?

A Guide to CME Sponsorship of Serial Conferences

(Grand Rounds, Lecture Series, Tumor Boards, Journal Clubs, QA/M&M/Case & Specialty Conferences)

Copyright 2005 (Revised: 01/01/14) by: Kathy Kavanagh, Director

Continuing Medical Education, New York Medical College

Room 2N-C18 Sunshine Cottage Road (Skyline Drive), Valhalla, NY 10595

 Phone: (914) 594-2530

 Fax: (914) 594-2531

 kathy_johnston@nymc.edu

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Congratulations! You have just been appointed the Serial Conferences Coordinator

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You may be feeling a bit overwhelmed by this new honor

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Fear Not! You too can effectively manage your

department’s Serial Conferences

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Yes, the rumors are true, there is a lot of paperwork

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But, with a little planning, you can keep things flowing smoothly

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Just follow these simple steps

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Step 1:Review the Application Packet

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Yes, there are a lot of pages, but…

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Most of them are examples and instructions to help you complete the

paperwork

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All the forms are designed for completion on your computer in

Microsoft Word!

Your department chairman, faculty

members, or other designated physicians will need to identify a global

practice gap for this Regularly Scheduled

Series that the individual sessions will help to

address. 12

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What this means is that the group at which the series is directed must have demonstrated in

practice that they need to acquire new information or skills.

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In even plainer English, “What are the doctors not doing that they could do which, in turn, would improve their

patients’ health?”

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What exactly is a “Gap?”

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Practice Gap

What Docs are currently doing in

their practice

What Docs should be doing to improve their patients’ health

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So, How do you “Identify the Gap”?

– You must first identify the accepted standard of care and/or screening for a specific condition

– You must then assess your physicians’ current practice (what your physicians {the target audience} are/are not currently doing for the same specific condition)

– The difference between what your physicians should be doing and what they are currently doing is the “Practice Gap”

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Where can gaps be found?

– There are many ways in which gaps can be identified. Some examples are:

• QA/QI Reviews• Specialty Society Guidelines• Public Health Data, Chart Audits, Hospital

Discharge Data• Physician Self Assessment• Government Mandates• Current Medical Literature• Program Evaluation Data

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Connecting gaps to your learners…

If you used data on a national or state level to identify a practice gap, you must show how you connected that gap to your own learners.

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Gaps can also relate to the ACGME/ABMS Competencies

• Patient Care

• Medical Knowledge

• Practice-based Learning

• Intrapersonal Skills

• Professionalism

• Systems-based Practice

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Ok, now that you have a “gap” then what?

Why does this gap exist? • Is it due to your target audience’s lack of:

– Knowledge (factual information, being aware),– Competence (Strategies for/ or knowing how to do something), or– Performance (carrying out a strategy or task)?

How can you best address this gap?• What do you hope to accomplish with this activity series?• This becomes the Activity Goal

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Step 2: Once the gap has been identified, work with your physician leader to

Complete the Annual Application for CME Sponsorship of Serial Conferences

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As the name implies, you will need to submit an application each year for each

Serial Conference (Grand Rounds, Tumor Board, M&M, etc.) series.

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The application covers basic information about the Serial Conference series

Facts, just the Facts, Ma’am

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A CME number will be assigned to this series

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This number is very important – and should appear on all documents relating

to this series

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If you don’t have this number, call the CME Office at (914) 594-3369

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Once you submit the annual application, the CME Office will draft a Sponsorship Agreement for this series.

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This agreement outlines the responsibilities and requirements for

holding serial conferences

SponsorshipAgreement

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One important requirement is that you collect Financial Disclosure information from everyone in a

position to control activity content and presentation.

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What the heck is “Financial Disclosure” and why should you

care?“Disclosure” is the procedure through which a presenter/planner tells the audience about all the relationships he/she has with any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients and/or the financial supporters of an activity.

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An example in plain English: If a speaker owns 50% stock in the company that makes the drug discussed in her presentation, could the presentation be colored to highlight only the good of the drug since the speaker would make a lot of money if more people used it?

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Who Has to “Disclose”?

For CME purposes, any person who is responsible for picking lecture topics or who interacts with the audience in the educational portion of a CME activity (e.g. planner, presenter, moderator, instructor) is considered to be in a

position to control activity content and must provide disclosure information.

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How do you go about getting this information from the activity

faculty and planners?

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Each faculty member & planner is asked to complete a “Financial

Disclosure Form”

This Form asks information Regarding relationships with commercial supporters and/or manufacturers of products or providers of services discussed in their presentations.

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The individual must indicate either:

•They have no significant relationship

•They have a relationship (and then state the nature of the relationship)

•They are refusing to disclose any information regarding relationships –Note, if they refuse to disclose they CANNOT participate in the activity.

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It is the provider’s responsibility to review the disclosure information to determine if

there is the potential for a conflict of interest (COI) and if the potential exists, to

take steps to resolve it PRIOR to the activity.

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NYMC has chosen to require individuals with the potential for COI to sign a Good

Practices Agreement.

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This agreement outlines the requirements for the content and presentation of CME activities.

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By signing this agreement, the faculty or planning member is attesting to his/her

commitment to ensuring the activity complies to all CME requirements.

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But… just gathering this disclosure information is not

enough

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You have to communicate this information to the audience

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Why is “Disclosure” so important?

Because, the audience has the

right to know what influences a speaker’s presentation.

NYMC Department of Stress

Grand Rounds Speaker: Richard P. Simmons

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The audience can then decide if the presentation was balanced and free

from bias

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Disclosure can be made to the audience by:

• Posting the information on the announcement, sign-in sheet, welcome PowerPoint slide, and on a sign by the sign-in sheet

• Having the Activity Director make a verbal announcement and then sign the attestation that the disclosure was made

The more ways that disclosure is communicated, the better!

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NYMC requires that you communicate this information on your activity

announcement.

Richard P. Simmons has disclosed that he is on the speakers board of StressBusters

You can also post this information on a welcome slide that is playing when the

audience enters the room!

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Welcome!

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You can also put this information on the sign-in sheet, or post it nearby.

Department of Stress Grand Rounds Sign-In Sheet

Friday, 11/31/01

Name Signature

Richard P. Simmons has disclosed that he is on the Speaker’s Board of StressBusters

We gratefully acknowledge StressBusters for their generous support of this activity.

John Smith, MD

Address1313 Mockingbird Lane, Anytown, NY 11111

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Be sure you have documentation that disclosure was made to the audience

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You will also have to acknowledge

any outside financial support for this activity.

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It is perfectly ok to have outside companies help support a CME activity.

CME Activity

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Any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or

used on, patients is considered to be a “Commercial Interest”

Note: providers of clinical service directly to patients are not considered commercial interests.

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Drug and Device companies often contribute to and may even

fully underwrite CME Activities.It is legal and acceptable as long as the

company does not control any part of the activity or provide any guidance on the

content of the activity or on who should

deliver the content.

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To ensure that activities remain well-balanced and unbiased

Certain rules must be followed by the: Commercial Interests, Activity Director, Planning Committee Members, Faculty,

CME Office, and Participants.

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These rules are called the “Standards for Commercial Support”

(SCS, for short).

SCS

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Support can be in the form of an unrestricted

educational grant – where the company gives you a certain amount of money to spend for this series as

you see fit, or the company can specify that the money be used only

for certain expenses.

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This includes Food & Beverage and Speaker Honorariums

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Note that money MUST come through the department and

CANNOT be paid directly to any speaker or to directly purchase any

food or beverage

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This Does NOT mean that you can’t have Food and Beverages at your

activity, it just means that the company has to give you the money

and you have to pay the caterer

You get the money from the company

And in turn pay the honorarium or food bill

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You will need a fully executed Letter of Agreement or Commercial Support Agreement for each

commercial supporter of this Serial Conference Series

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Commercial Support Agreements must come to the CME Office for review and signature before any funds are accepted. The CME

Office will forward the agreement to the CFO for review and signature.

The ACCME requires that the CME Office maintain a Fully Executed copy

of each agreement (complete with ALL the signatures.)

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Commercial Support Checks must come to the CME Office, and we, in

turn, send them on to the departmental contact.

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All honoraria payments and reimbursement of expenses must be

made in accordance with NYMC Policies.

Policies &

Procedures

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Commercial Support must be Acknowledged by making the statement “we gratefully acknowledge {name of company} for their generous support of this educational activity” on the announcement.It can also be noted on:

• The sign-in sheet

• A sign by the sign-in sheet

•On the Welcome slide(s)

• The participant evaluation form

Thank You for your support!

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For more information regarding the Standards for Commercial Support – please see the presentation entitled:

You and Me & CME:*A Handbook for Commercial Support CME

(*Lousy grammar, but it rhymes!)

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This system was NOT designed just to torture you, but to ensure that you retain control over the

CME Activity.

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Now, take a deep breath and let’s move on to the next step.

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Step 3: Set up templates for:

• Speaker Invitation and/or Confirmation Letter(Required only for Grand Rounds & Lecture Series)

• Financial Disclosure Form (For the faculty members/planners)

• Conference Announcement• Participant Sign-in Sheet• Participant Activity Evaluation• Monthly Summary• Semi-Annual RSS Attendance Spreadsheet

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Setting up your Speaker Invitation/Confirmation Letter

(For Grand Rounds & Lecture Series)

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This Letter must include:

• Title of the Lecture Series or Grand Rounds• Date, time, and location of the Conference• Specific measurable Learning Objectives for the Lecture or the

lecture series• A request for the speaker to complete the Financial Disclosure

Form and a date by when it must be returned to you PRIOR to the activity date

• A request for the speaker’s AV requirements• The name and contact information if the speaker has any questions• The amount of honoraria (if any) and reimbursable expenses

– It would also be a good idea to include directions to the lecture location

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Setting up the Financial Disclosure Form Template

You can fill in the CME number and the Activity Title (Name of the Series) and save the document as a template, then for each presentation you can double click on the template to open a new

document and just type in the session date and the presenter’s name.

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Activity Title: Dept. of Stress Grand Rounds

Activity Planners can complete one disclosure that covers the year (unless their relationships

change during the year.)

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Don’t forget to send a Financial Disclosure form to the Presenter (For

Grand Rounds, send this with the Invitation/Confirmation letter)

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Designing the Conference Announcement

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Keep in mind that you will need to include certain information on this

announcement.

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You will need:

• The Date, Time, and Location of the Lecture• Your Department’s name as the Presenting Group• The Title of the Lecture• The Name and Affiliation of the Speaker(s)• Learning Objective(s) for the Lecture

– Specific Objectives for each lecture for Grand Rounds– The Global Objective this series

• The Correct CME Accreditation Statements• Presenter’s Disclosure Statement• Planning Committee’s Disclosure Statement(s)• Acknowledgement of all commercial support for this activity

The CME Office has provided you with an announcement template to help you.

Hint: To make things easier for each announcement, you can fill in the standard information and then save the template to use throughout the year and just enter the information that relates to each session.

Items that usually don’t change are:Department name, activity location and time, Planning

Committee disclosures, Target Audience, & the Accreditation Statements

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Setting up the Participant Sign-in Sheet

Department of Stress Grand Rounds Sign-In Sheet

Friday, 11/31/10

Name Signature

Richard P. Simmons has disclosed that he is on the Speaker’s Board of StressBustersWe gratefully acknowledge StressBusters for their generous support of this activity.

John Smith, MD

Marcus Welby, MD

Marc Craig, MD

Ben Kildare, MD

Address1313 Mockingbird Lane, Anytown, NY 1111114 Hospital DriveLos Angeles, CA 99999

St. Eligas Med Center1 Med Center Lane, Suite 200Boston, MA 05555Dept. of MedicineFictional Medical CenterNowhere, CA 99999

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Hint: Since the majority of your attendees will come to most

sessions, you can set up a Sign-In sheet template at the beginning of the year and just change the dates throughout the year and add names and update addresses as necessary.

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To ensure proper credit is issued names and addresses must be

typed on the Sign-In sheet

Activity Evaluation

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At Each Session, you will need to evaluate the effectiveness of the speaker, whether the stated

objectives were met, and if the participants felt that the activity was scientifically sound and free from

commercial bias.

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You also need to measure the series’ success in reducing the practice gap.

• Twice a year (December and June) the CME Office will send you an evaluation that must be completed by participants at the next session

• This evaluation will measure:– Participants changes in practice – The ACGME competencies address by the series– Whether the series helped improve

– Competence– Performance in practice

This evaluation can also help you pick topics for the next year’s series!

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At the end of each month, enter the participant attendance information into

the Semi-Annual RSS Attendance Spreadsheet.

• Open the spreadsheet

• Next to the physician name under the correct date enter the number of credits that each activity session has been deemed. (Most will be 1 credit.)

• The spreadsheet is set up to automatically tally the number of credits for the period. 85

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Grand Rounds/Lecture Series Monthly Summary Template

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Complete and submit this summary page each month.

June

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Each month you will need to submit the following to the CME office

• Completed Monthly Summary• Lecture Announcements• Individual Speaker Financial Disclosure Forms (Planning

committee forms need only be sent at the start of the year unless something changes.)

• Proof that Potential COI was resolved prior to the session• Fully Executed Commercial Support Agreements (if lectures

had outside financial support)• Proof that honoraria and expenses were paid according to

NYMC policies• Activity evaluation for each session• Original Participant Sign-In Sheets

Be sure to keep copies of all documents sent to the CME Office!

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The CME Office will review your materials to ensure you have the

correct documentation

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If a problem is discovered, we will work with you to ensure you

understand the rules.

Rules for CME

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Our goal is to help you plan the highest quality CME activities.

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Serial Conference CME certificates will be issued at the end of the

academic year to each participating physician at the address listed on the

sign-in sheets.

Please note, you must submit ALL required documentation for a session

for it to be eligible for credit.

Any session that does not have the required documentation will not be

counted in the total number of credits awarded.

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Information regarding credits issued to physicians must be maintained by

the CME Office for 6 years.

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The CME Office’s role in all this is to assist Activity

Directors and Coordinators in developing quality programs and ensuring that all NYMC, ACCME, and AMA policies

are followed.

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Now, Here is how you can

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Forward completed paperwork to us in a timely fashion.

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If you are unsure of how to do something, ask us BEFORE you

do it.

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Share your suggestions of ways we can improve our services.

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Explain the importance of the CME paperwork to resistant

physicians.

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Remember, we are here to help you with your CME activities.

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In case of questions, “Who You Gonna Call?”

The Grand Rounds Guru

Margaret Astrologo,

Assistant Director, CME

Phone: (914) 594-2535

Fax: (914) 594-2531

Email: margaret_astrologo@nymc.edu

website: www.nymc.edu/Academics/SchoolOfMedicine/ContinuingMedicalEducationCme