A proposal to enhance the disclosure of potential conflict of interest for continuing medical education events.
BACKGROUND
Commercial support for continuing medical education (CME) raises questions about potential conflict of interest. Current disclosure methods provide limited, general information about the nature and degree of support, such that potential conflict of interest cannot be studied by researchers or understood by physicians.


CONCLUSIONS
This article proposes a semiquantitative method for disclosure of commercial support for CME. The method includes a statement of the degree of support a program receives from all sources and an estimate of how revenue for the program compares to expenses. The new method would standardize the semiquantitative reporting of commercial support for CME programs.


CONCLUSIONS
The proposed method for disclosing conflict of interest for CME events should facilitate the study and understanding of how commercial support affects these programs.
Steward
David E
DE
Department of Internal Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, PO Box 19636, Springfield, IL 62794-9636, USA. dsteward@siumed.edu
D016265:Conflict of Interest; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans