Efforts to Increase Distance Between Health Industry and Medical Industry

Jamie Sheller

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The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education wants to increase the distance between the commercial interests of the health industry and continuing medical education. This statement was made during testimony at a Capital Hill hearing of the Senate Committee on Aging. In response to earlier testimony by prominent physicians who criticized industry funding of CME, the ACCME said that industry does not influence CME in the U.S. The ACCME chief executive, Dr. Murray Kopelow, made this assertion despite the $1 billin in funding that the industry provided for CME in 2008, which accounted for 44% of total CME income. Dr. Kopelow testified that the $1 billion of industry funding in 2008 was $200 million dollars less than was provided in 2007. The ACCME is planning to institute various measures to minimize industry bias in CME. One of the propsed measures is to increase scrutiny on CME providers that are heavily supported by commercial interests. New fees on the CME system can help fund a boost in staff and expenditures of the ACCME. Those moves will alllow the ACCME to personally observe CME field ativities, as part of a surveillance and monitoriing system. Also, the ACCME will "exclude from accreditation any entity that markets, resells, or distributes healthcare products or services." These are some of the proposed efforts from the ACCME.