Psychiatr News April 4, 2008
Volume 43, Number 7, page 5
© 2008 American Psychiatric Association
APA Enforces Strict Rules to Keep Bias out of CME
Jun Yan
APA has multiple procedures in place to ensure that pharmaceutical
company bias does not enter continuing medical education programs.
APA makes every effort to prevent bias in medical education activities
funded by pharmaceutical companies, Linda Bueno, APA associate director for
commercially supported activities, told Psychiatric News (see How
Much Influence Does Drug Industry Have on CME? for more information on this
topic). The Scientific Program Committee peer reviews all educational programs
proposed for APA meetings and works with APA staff and the Committee on
Commercial Support to evaluate and manage potential conflicts of interest,
Bueno said. Most members on the committees do not have financial ties with
industry; the ones who do must disclose relationships with pharmaceutical
companies in detail.
Programs are chosen for APA meetings if they meet scientific standards and
the needs of members. The topics, objectives, and content are finalized before
any funding is acquired. APA staff members select a small number of all
programs planned for a meeting for which they will seek industry funding, and
only a portion of these programs actually receive industry funding. The
sponsor is not allowed to influence the program's objectives, content, and
speakers. The industry-supported symposia (ISS) at APA meetings are clearly
distinguished from and scheduled at times that do not overlap with educational
programs that do not have industry sponsorship.
The vast majority of educational programs at APA meetings are not supported
by the pharmaceutical industry, a major difference from for-profit medical
education companies whose business is to pitch educational programs to
pharmaceutical companies for funding, according to Deborah Hales, M.D.,
director of the APA Division of Education.
The same Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
standards apply to all CME providers, but the interpretation and
implementation of the standards depend on each provider's policies, said
Bueno, and APA has very stringent policies to prevent conflict of interest and
maintain educational independence in ISS. Before every meeting, APA staff
solicit the help of members of the Ethics Committee, Committee on Commercial
Support, and Scientific Program Committee to review the proposed program
content, such as slides and handouts, for bias and balance. In addition, APA
enlists residents to monitor each ISS for bias during the presentations.
Before this year's annual meeting, as in the past, resident monitors will be
taught to recognize bias and assess the quality of presentations. Meeting
participants are required to fill out an evaluation for each
industry-supported presentation, in which they are asked about the balance in
the presentation and perceived industry bias. If participants or monitors
report inappropriate content, APA staff will review the recordings of the
presentations. APA has explicit policies on when warnings and sanctions are
issued to presenters who do not conform with conflicts of interest
guidelines.
APA President Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., said that the ISS included in every
APA meeting are evaluated more closely than any other sessions to ensure that
there is appropriate transparency and disclosure, lack of bias, and high
quality.
"We take responsibility for the quality of every facet of our
meeting. When we receive grants from industry, APA maintains total control of
our programs and works to ensure that the programs present objective
information, address critical issues, and meet rigorous scientific
criteria." She noted that these sessions are a part of an extensive
offering of high-quality sessions and that the faculty for these symposia are
generally leaders in psychiatric research and care. "These are not
promotional sessions," she emphasized.
She pointed out that most of the educational programs by for-profit
communication companies "do not have the same intense planning and
oversight that is part of APA's annual meeting program." 
Related Article:
-
How Much Influence Does Drug Industry Have on CME?
- Jun Yan
Psychiatr News 2008 43: 4-44.
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