Do You Ever Speak at CME Events?

The ACCME rules for disclosure of financial relationships changed at the beginning of 2022.

The general ACCME rule is that speakers and planners of CME activities must disclose financial relationships with companies that are ineligible to be accredited in the ACCME System (ineligible companies, formerly called commercial interests.)

Ineligible companies are those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

In the past, the most likely companies to fall into that definition were pharmaceutical, medical device manufactures, and their agents. As of 2022, the rules have changed.

Changes include:

  • Additions the ineligible company categories – financial relationships with these additional categories of companies must be disclosed:  health-related wearable products; growers, distributors, manufacturers or sellers of medical foods and dietary supplements; and bio-medical startups that have begun a governmental regulatory approval process, as well as a few less common categories. See full list.
  • Stock ownership in a privately held ineligible company (as opposed to a company that is publicly traded on the stock exchange) is now considered an ownership interest, which can disqualify you from presenting CME, unless one of a few exceptions can be documented. These are the same rules that apply to owners and salary employees of ineligible companies.  See #2 here for details.
  • Disclose past 24 months (increased from 12 months)
  • No longer include spouse disclosures

Rules that didn’t change include:

  • Employees and owners of ineligible companies are generally disqualified from presenting in CME activities, unless specific exceptions are met.  See #2 here for details.
  • Government, hospital, insurance, publishing, education, university, 501c3 organizations, and many other types of financial relationships are never considered conflicts of interest because they are all organization types that are eligible to offer CME.  Read full eligibility rules. Therefore, you DO NOT need to include them on your disclosure form.
  • Volunteer (non-financial) relationships are never considered reportable conflicts of interest.

In addition to the above ACCME rules for disclosure, when speaking at an event hosted by The Obesity Society, we require disclosure of all food, supplement, and weight management company financial relationships, regardless of whether the company meets the criteria of an ACCME ineligible company.

Accreditation Statement

The Obesity Society is accredited by the Accreditation Governing Board for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.