News in brief >Posted Sept. 5, 2011.< 2011

Drugmaker logos to stay in CME disclosures

Corporate logos will continue to appear when drugmakers and other industry firms disclose their commercial support for continuing medical education programs.

In April, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education asked for comments on a proposal to ban logos and restrict any support disclosure to the simple name of the industry firm. While nearly 30% of CME providers responding to the proposal backed the idea, 40% opposed the ban and the rest offered mixed reactions. Based on the divided comments, the ACCME's board of directors in July decided to retain the policy pending further study and discussion with CME providers (www.accme.org/dir_docs/doc_upload/429d1775-4252-4a4a-9359-d06d2b157072_uploaddocument.pdf).

Under the current policy, when CME providers disclose commercial support, they can state the name, mission and areas of clinical involvement of the company, and include corporate logos and slogans so long as they do not promote a specific product. The ban was proposed "to strengthen the firewall between accredited continuing medical education and promotion," the council said.

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Antibiotic cuts infections in dialysis patients

Using an antibiotic-anticoagulant solution in catheters between dialysis treatments reduced the risk of developing infections by nearly 75%, said a study published online Aug. 18 by the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21852579).

Nearly 40,000 dialysis patients had bloodstream infections in 2008, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though the focus has been on encouraging dialysis patients to opt for arteriovenous fistulas instead of catheters to deliver treatment, the new option could help patients using catheters, the study found. Dialysis patients' catheters are "locked" between treatments to prevent blood clots, usually with the anticoagulant heparin.

Researchers performed a randomized controlled trial with about 200 dialysis patients, comparing the heparin option with a solution of the antibiotic minocycline and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, known as EDTA. Over 90 days, 19 of the heparin-locked patients developed infections, compared with five patients in the minocycline-EDTA group. There was no difference among the two groups in how well the catheters functioned, the study said.

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