Sorry about the bad pun — I couldn’t resist. Anyway, the Accreditation Council for CME sent its latest e-newsletter today, including an announcement that its Program & Activity Reporting System, or PARS, is scheduled to open for an four-week exhibition/education phase in April. From the e-newsletter:

PARS is a Web-based portal designed to streamline and support the collection of program and activity data from continuing medical education providers. The purpose of the exhibition/education phase is to afford accredited providers, if they choose to do so, the hands-on opportunity to try out the system before it is made available for actual data collection. Accredited providers can view instructional materials about how PARS works, enter test data (which will be deleted before the system goes live), ask questions and provide feedback.



The exhibition/education phase is optional. We will send all accredited providers an e-mail alert with instructions for receiving a login ID and password as soon as the phase is open. Instructions will also be posted on the PARS Information Page. Please note that PARS is open only to ACCME-accredited providers.




The exhibition/education phase follows two pilot phases, during which groups of accredited providers volunteered to test the system. Based on their input, and feedback from other stakeholders, the ACCME made improvements to PARS, to ensure that it will be an efficient and valuable resource for the accredited CME system. After the exhibition/education phase, the ACCME will make any necessary additional adjustments before launching PARS.

The report also said that results from its recent calls-for-comment, which closed March 8, on ACCME’s Complaints and Inquiries Process, Knowledge-Based CME Activities, and ACCME’s Recognition Process, are being reviewed and analyzed. The ACCME will post the comments to its Web site before the next board of directors meeting, scheduled for July 15-16, when the board will discuss them.

And for those who are confused about how to implement the ACCME’s independence policies, check out this update and case examples. And here’s more about the ACCME’s process for implementing its redefinition of commercial interest, including a case example of a compliant corporate structure, as well as a description of noncompliant structures.

If you don’t already get these reports, I highly recommend subscribing to them. Kudos to ACCME for keeping us all informed on what it’s been up to lately.

While I wonder how much debate there actually will be, given that the organizer’s mission is to “Document and disseminate information about how pharmaceutical companies influence prescribing, provide access to unbiased information about drugs, encourage physicians to choose pharma-free CME,” this conference sounds interesting: Prescription for Conflict: Should Industry Fund Continuing Medical Education?

I just now finally got around to listening to the interviews Lawrence Sherman recorded with CME leaders about the Alliance for CME meeting held in January, and they are terrific. Whether you were able to attend or not, take a few minutes (they’re not long) to hear what some of the ACME speakers had to say on ReachMD.

I’ve seen other robot simulators, but never one for budding dentists before. Interesting!

Like all simulators, I’m sure it’s useful, but it still doesn’t squirm and whine anywhere near as much as I do! (Thanks to Gizmodo for the pointer.)

Had to scramble to put this article together yesterday, but at least we got in a few thoughts on how the healthcare reform bill that passed on Sunday and is scheduled to be signed into law by the President today could effect pharma meetings for HCPs and CME. But I’d really like to know what you think. Please drop a comment below or e-mail your thoughts to me. I won’t share them without your OK, but inquiring minds want to know…

Thanks to Thomas Sullivan at Policy and Medicine for outlining the Physician Payment Sunshine Provisions of the healthcare reform bill that passed yesterday. I heard from many at our Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum last week that many companies — particularly the larger ones — have already been tracking their annual per-physician spend (including speaker fees, travel, etc.), and not just for their physicians from Massachusetts and Vermont, in anticipation of some version of the Sunshine provisions being passed.

If anyone has any thoughts on how this will affect pharma meetings for HCPs and/or CME, drop me a note. I’m also curious how the bill overall might affect CME, outside of the transparency provisions. Will it push the CME enterprise closer to a performance-improvement model? Are there other CME or pharma meeting-related consequences, intentional or otherwise, that you see stemming from this bill? Let’s talk.

What do these three things have to do with each other? Read this article for one of the weirdest conflict-of-interest stories I’ve heard in a while: Whose Red Dress? Docs Debate Diet Coke Logo

I’ve been a big fan of Don Moore, PhD, professor of Medical Education and Administration and director of Continuing Medical Education at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, since I met him at the first CME Leadership conference held back in the early 00s. I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with him often, but when I have, he has never failed to fill my mind with all kinds of thoughts on not just on CME, but everything to do with human learning (and teaching).

So I was beyond thrilled to learn the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education has awarded him the 2010 Distinguished Service Award (thanks to Floyd Pennington for the pointer). Congratulations, Dr. Moore.