Live Activities/Plan C
Certification Process (“Accreditation”)
UCSF CME employs a formal credit application process, which is generally conducted 6-12 months or more prior to the offering date. Each application is reviewed and formally presented to our Governing Board Accreditation Review Committee for approval.We have a rolling first-Monday-of-the-month submission deadline for review in the following month. However, the Office of CME processes applications on a first-come first served basis, and scheduling is subject to capacity limits and governing board reviewers’ conflicts of interest. In the unlikely event your submitted application is not scheduled for a decision in the month after the current deadline, you will be notified, and your application given scheduling priority in the following month. Therefore it is important that you submit your application in a manner that allows it not only to be certified prior to the start date of the activity, but also certified with enough time to market and promote your activity in a compliant manner that includes accreditation language where appropriate. In order for an application to be considered for certification we require that a UCSF faculty member be integrally engaged in the planning process and serve on the planning committee, that the activity be designed to change competence and/or performance, and that the activity is intended to address a documented or factually based practice gap. A practice gap is evidence in the current profession which suggests that improved performance or patient outcomes is achievable compared to current level.
Practice gaps can be based on varied sources such as local, national or state-wide patient data, regulatory compliance needs, performance indicators, national guidelines, patient health and safety standards or any of the ACGME or IOM competencies.Gaps do not have to be clinical in nature, but they must reflect an opportunity to improve patient care. You will be required to describe how your activity is designed to narrow the identified practice gaps. Your application should describe the ideal results of participating in the activity in terms of how the impact of participation will manifest in practice. This focus on intended changes in practice lends itself to creating objectives that are behavioral in nature and learner- and/or patient-centered.
Evaluation
It is also a requirement of UCSF CME programming to evaluate the overall effectiveness of each CME activity.Objectives should be carefully written to yield a meaningful assessment. To this end, we have developed a standard evaluation template that includes some required metrics. This template can be adjusted or expanded to address specific educational measures of interest to your planning department, however there are specific questions which may not be omitted. You may call to discuss your evaluation strategy and we will support you in efforts to customize, streamline, and realize efficiencies in the evaluation instrument and in your process. The assessment of change and overall quality of the activity help evaluate the effectiveness of the activity in changing confidence, skills, the application of knowledge, and/or performance changes made to improve the health of patients.
Faculty Disclosure
UCSF CME policy requires the activity chair (or co-chairs) be full-time appointed faculty at UCSF. We require that each member named on the planning committee and any others who may have control of the educational content (including non-physicians and staff) to complete a disclosure. All relevant individuals should complete a disclosure far enough in advance of the course for Peer Review of selected presentations to occur and to share those disclosures with learners in advance of the activity. The completed disclosuresof planning committee members must be completed in time to accompany the application.
In addition, all speakers must disclose any financial relationships with commercial interests[1], or, entities providing goods or services to health care professionals (e.g., pharmaceutical and device manufacturers). Disclosure statements from each speaker, moderator, and panelist should be collected as soon as possible, and submitted to OCME as part of course completion documentation.
All financial interests with commercial interests must be disclosed to learners/attendees prior to the beginning of the activity. This can be accomplished on the first slide after the speaker’s title slide (please obtain a copy), on any promotional announcements, in the syllabus/handout, or verbally at the podium with signed documentation that disclosure occurred.
Resolving Conflicts of Interest
Any disclosure of financial relationships to commercial interestsis presumed to represent a conflict of interest. The CME Governing Board has determined that peer review of speaker materials prior to presentation is the only method of mitigating conflicts of interest. Coordinating peer review is the responsibility of the department or outside organization. Peer reviewers are expected to be UCSF faculty with expertise in the subject matter, have no financial relationships with commercial interests, and to attest to having reviewed and ensured in advance of presentation, there is no commercial bias in slides an effort has been made to ensure no bias in verbal presentation of activity faculty. Peer Review Validation forms are available for this purpose. Completed validation forms along with corresponding final slides must be submitted to OCME as part of course completion documentation.
In November 2014 the UCSF CME Governing Board approved an important change in UCSF CME policy which excludes all faculty members who are on speakers’ bureausfrom participating in UCSF continuing medical education. This includes planning, chairing, moderating, and teaching CME. This new policy is consistent with AAMC guidelinesand to policies implemented by other peer institutions. A speakers’ bureau relationship exists when a commercial interest has any control over the content of any presentation that the presenter/panelist/moderator/planner has given in the past year. This may be as minimal as approval of the presentation to being as complete as providing the slides. This is considered to be different from occasionally speaking for and/or advising on topics of interest to the commercial interest and receiving an honorarium for a presentation.
Registration
Participants in your activity can enroll through our on-line registration system, fax, phone or postal mail. As part of our registration services, OCME maintains a database of attendees and can generate attendee rosters and name badges. All activities approved for CME credit by UCSF will appear on the Office of CME website among a detailed chronological listing of our courses. Each listing includes a comprehensive description of the course educational objectives, logistical details and registration information.For a sample of these listings, view the Office of CME course calendar.
Conference Planning Services
You will be planning and executing the logistics for your activity within your department or organization. Please consult the attached ‘Adjustable CME Planner Timeline Tool’ and ‘Comprehensive Checklist and Requirements for a Live CME Activity’. Your will be required to customize, monitor, and complete the needed tasks in these timelines in a manner compliant with CME standards.
Allagreements and funding from commercial interests, including educational grants, exhibit fees or in-kind equipment support, mustbe sent directly to OCME for agreement review/approval, processing and deposit.
Depending on your needs, you might consider our full-scale conference planning services, which include venue selection and contracting, managing faculty communication, faculty travel and honoraria, promotional material design/mailing, evaluation tabulation, logistical arrangements, securing and paying for required services, coordinating honoraria and travel reimbursements, grant and exhibit solicitation and management, and on-site staffing support. It is extremely important to arrange for these services far enough in advance to guarantee that the Office of CME has the needed resources for your activity during the period of time in which they are needed.
Fees
The accreditation fee for a directly-sponsored activity is $1,000. In addition we assess a $35.00 per person fee for registrants processed through OCME for participation in the educational activity.This fee covers the issuance of attendee certificates and maintenance of records for a period of six years. Note this year’s credit card fees for collecting payments by credit or debit card is 2.5% of each transaction. This pass-through fee is in addition to OCME registration fees.
Timeline
The UCSF CME Governing Board Accreditation Review Committee reviews every application submitted for certification. It is our preference to receive and review first time activities at least 6 months prior to the scheduled offering date.There is a rolling first-Monday-of-the-month submission deadline for review in the following month, subject to capacity and reviewer conflicts of interest. For example, an application submitted the first Monday of July will normally be reviewed by the governing board in mid-August.
[1]In August 2007, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) modified its definition of a "commercial interest" as follows: “A commercial interest is considered any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.”