This artilce appeared a few months back, but it is no less timely today.  Tamar does a great job at redirecting attention to the benefits of CME.

http://meetingsnet.com/cmepharma/cme/meetings_spread_word_cme/

Spread the Word: CME Saves Lives

Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Tamar Hosansky Editor thosansky@meetingsnet.com

The Government has widened its probe into CME. Two months after the United States Senate Finance Committee issued its CME report, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing about conflict of interest created by industry's educational grants and relationships with physicians. Here's the opening line of the June 27 Washington Post story covering the hearing:

“Drug companies have become the biggest sponsors of continuing medical education courses in recent years, even at the nation's top medical schools, a development that critics say raises healthcare costs, skews doctors' treatment decisions, and allows the industry to skirt laws against advertising ‘off label’ uses for its products.”

It doesn't get much more damning than that.

The challenge facing the CME community is to create a campaign that can make a difference in the national debate on healthcare; and begin to correct the public's, media's, and government's skewed perceptions of CME. The Alliance for CME is sending a contingent to meet with Senate Finance Committee staff in October. (See cover story, page 28.) In addition, providers can generate a grass-roots education effort on a local, as well as national, level.

One tactic is to create a CME information packet. Use your press kit to make contact with your state legislators and local media. Find out your local politicians' stance on healthcare; some are using the issue of industry influence on physician education in their campaigns. Be proactive and position CME as a leader in healthcare improvement. Establish relationships with small press outlets; they often need material, and their focus is on community stories.

In “The PI Challenge” (June 2007), we reported on how the Seton Family of Hospitals, Austin, Texas, reduced mortality in sepsis patients by 16 percent through a performance-improvement activity. That's the kind of success story the public needs to hear about. Look at your data: Have your educational activities cut down on unnecessary tests, boosted accurate diagnosis rates, improved physician adherence to guidelines, reduced medical errors, or increased care for underserved populations?

You need to tell those stories, not in academic or medical language, but in layperson's terms. That means combining statistics and hard facts with personal stories and emotion. Get testimonials from physicians and patients affected by CME. Providers need to give CME a human face. If your activity resulted in easing the pain or bettering the life of even one patient, that is an important story to tell.

And, don't evade the commercial support controversy. The Washington Post story highlighted the fact that drug companies shell out $1 billion annually in CME grants. Turn around the suspicion of influence-peddling. Yes, your office receives industry grants. Here are examples of how that money has been used to help patients. (If you don't accept commercial support, highlight that information.)

Every day, the public hears stories about pharmaceutical companies covering up drug safety problems, conducting illegal marketing campaigns, buying politicians. The CME community needs to counter with headlines of its own. One CME professional created a button that says: “CME Saves Lives.” That's the message you need to deliver. Don't only refute the negative accusations; assert the positive CME agenda. CME saves lives — here's how.

Good afternoon,

I just had a wonderful conversation with the new person in charge of the Center for Business Intelligence's (CBI's) Educational Grants Conferences.

Brendan is new to the CME community but seems to be a bright guy and very interested in learning.

If you want to contact Brendan directly and offer some suggestions:

Brendan Emerson
Program Manager | The Center for Business Intelligence (CBI)
Phone: 781.939.2629 | Fax: 781.939.2693 | Brendan.Emerson@cbinet.com
www.cbinet.com

Brendan seems to be open to providing time at the 2008 CME Grants Conferences for discussion around advocacy, the evidence of effectiveness, and the value of CME (for all stakeholders).

The list of people Brendan has contacted is a Who's Who of CME Leaders from pharma, biotechs, and MECCs...I know these meetings have left a lot to be desired recently...but maybe the tide has turned...

In other meeting news...one organizer that has done a great job allowing the CME leaders and the mentors plan the program has been Pharmaceutical Executive and the planning of the 2007 CME Forum.. The meeting is scheduled for November 28-30th, 2007 in Philadelphia. For more information:

http://www.mededforum.com/mededforum/v42/index.cvn

I have spoken with two of the five persons on the steering committee and they are very excited about how the program came about - this is possibly the first CME meeting (at least in the past five years) that was designed to address the needs of the CME community.  The agenda is superb, the speakers are stellar, and the discussions should be phenomenal...

This is the cover letter that accompanies the invitations. 

Dear Colleagues:

We support the 2007 MedEd Forum because:

1. There is an educational void specific to industry personnel in medical education and grants;

2. We desire to raise the bar with quality, needs-based learning for commercial supporters;

3. MedEd Forum is supporting industry efforts by being the first to transparently commit to the standards of separation and independence between promotion and education that we abide by in educational support.

We are pleased to collaborate on building this important event to address the issues and concerns you face every day.

Regardless of your experience level, the MedEd Forum will provide you with a key learning opportunity in your efforts to improve the quality of CME for better patient care. We look forward to sharing what we know and learning from each other, and we look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia November 28–30.

We need to continue to take advantage of these meetings - to plan more effectively the agenda and speakers so that these established channels can provide a benefit to the community.



 

Below is a new press release that was just sent out today by John Kamp on behalf of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication.  It has been published in MM&M.

http://www.mmm-online.com/Overuse-of-term-CME-has-sown-confusion-groups-say/article/58022/

Overuse of term ‘CME’ has sown confusion, groups say

October 16, 2007

Good, old-fashioned continuing medical education (CME)­, the kind produced by accredited providers­ has lost its cachet. Once the medical-education flagship, it has been subsumed in a sea of other types of activities: online and off-, self-directed and live, promotional and non-biased. The result is that "CME" has become a catchall to denote all manner of med ed.

Two groups, out to change what they see as overuse of the term, are launching a cooperative effort to underscore the difference between certain CME activities and others.

“Certified CME,” a phrase whose use they encourage, is distinguished from other kinds of educational activities. It's the kind for which attendees can earn credit hours from an organization that ensures learner needs are met and that content is scientifically rigorous, objective, balanced and independent, according to information the groups released.

This effort puts a “stake in the ground that says all CME activities are not alike,” said Marty Cearnal, co-chair of the CME committee of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, one of the organizers. Also involved is the North American Association of Medical Education and Communication Companies (NAAMECC).

NAAMECC and the coalition produced a business-card-size handout with a definition and a bright blue button that reads, “Certified CME is different.” Both will be distributed at the annual American Medical Association (AMA) meeting of the National Task Force on CME Provider-Industry Collaboration, which starts tomorrow in Arlington, VA, and at the Alliance for CME (ACME) meeting in January.

Their goal is to establish the difference in the halls of Congress and among regulators, physicians and even casual observers.

Much of the recent criticism of CME has often been "sweeping, but the fact is that most of the concerns don't really apply to certified CME activities," Cearnal said.

He explained that ‘CME' has become a generic term, applied accurately to a range of activities that physicians and other healthcare professionals get involved with as they keep updated and strive to improve patient care.

For instance, two kinds of med ed that are often referred to as CME include physician-directed learning, which does qualify as CME, and promotional activities, which do not.

“This is not to say that [one] is any more or less valid or important than the others,” Cearnal said. “[But] if you put it all together into a stew, it's difficult for people to understand the discussion.”

Certified CME is not a new term. It refers to the kind created by a provider accredited by the ACCME, AOA or the AAFP,­ the three main organizations empowered to certify a physician educational activity. Confusion arises when terms are misused, such as when referring to a “certified provider" (providers are not certified; activities are). In another instance of incorrect parlance, the Senate Finance Committee in its April report on the use of educational grants cited “accredited educational programs."

Said Cearnal: “If we continue to use this broad, generic term, then CME gets lumped together with all other CE activities, and that does create the opportunity for a misunderstanding that just doesn't need to be there.”

He said the two groups hope to reinforce additional definitions going forward. Their effort may help regulators examining medical education, maybe even some members of Congress, understand the nuances.