ACCME proposes Internet CME protections

The organization looks for guidelines as more physicians are going online to earn CME credits.

By amednews staff. Sept. 10, 2001.

Physicians using the Internet to acquire continuing medical education credits sometimes can be subjected to unwanted promotional or advertising information that is typically prohibited at live conferences or in periodicals.

Draft rules under development by an Internet task force of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education seek to address this problem. Physicians have until Sept. 30 to comment on the proposed policy, by e-mailing the ACCME (internet@accme.org). The guidelines are open for review at the ACCME's Web site (http://www.accme.org/).

The task force will make recommendations to the ACCME board in November.

"Our intention is to clarify existing rules not originally designed for the Internet," said Linda Casebeer, PhD, chair of the Adapting ACCME to the Internet Task Force. "There are companies that would like to do more advertising because they are under pressure for more revenue. This is an attempt to create boundaries."

For example, advertising can be presented on Internet sites where CME is offered, but "not within the content of CME," Dr. Casebeer said.

While online CME use by physicians doubled last year, the ACCME said it represented only 4% of total CME credits awarded. Most experts predict online CME will continue to increase in popularity as technology improves and physicians become more comfortable with the medium.

According to the proposed policy, the ACCME task force is making the following recommendations:

Advertising of any type is banned within the educational materials of CME activities on the Internet, including, but not limited to, banner ads, subliminal ads and pop-up windows.
In the acknowledgment of commercial support and disclosure statements, no specific products may be referenced, even if they are not related to the topic of the Internet CME activity.
Accredited providers will not create or allow to be created hidden technical mechanisms for transferring learner data, i.e., "cookies."
There shall be no CME activities of ACCME-accredited providers hosted on a pharmaceutical or device manufacturer's Web site.