Please join the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and The Coalition for Healthcare Communication
Industry Support for Continuing Education of Healthcare Professionals
An Evidence-Based Evaluation
Monday, September 22, 2008, 8:00 – 12:30 pm
121 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC
Several academic and “public interest” critics have called for more regulation and the elimination of commercial support of certified CME and promotional education, claiming that it creates an inherent and irreconcilable bias that harms patient care. This conference brings together physicians who actually organize and conduct private sector CME programs to address the following questions: Is it true that CME currently does not help patients because it is too “biased” and that restricting commercial support improves patient health? If, as proposed, industry simply gave cash to for profit academic medical centers and hospitals, would CME be any better or any less “biased”? Does barring industry support dampen intellectual freedom and drive talented people out of academic medicine?
Second, academic medical centers have been ineffective in training and educating non-physician health care workers and primary care doctors who serve in those areas where the shortage of health care services is particularly acute. The second panel will address the impact of eliminating $800 million [where does this number come from?] in commercial support for CME on primary care for the chronically ill and in underserved populations. Given the shortage of primary care physicians and non-physicians for the elderly and medically underserved populations, what role should private sector CME play in addressing this issue?
8:00 am - Registration, Continental Breakfast, Introductions
Robert Goldberg, PhD, Vice President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
Harry Sweeney, Coalition for Healthcare Communication
8:30 am - Keynote Lecture:
The American Siege Against Continuing Education in the Health Professions
George Lundberg, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The Medscape Journal, Medscape Core, and eMedicine
9:00 – 10:15 am - Session One:
Is there evidence that industry support of CME creates bias that harms patient care? What data exists demonstrating the impact CME has on health outcomes and appropriate clinical practice?
Moderator: Michael Weber, MD, Professor of Medicine, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Thomas Stossel, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Roger Meyer, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania
Jack Lewin, MD President, American College of Cardiology
Break
10:30 am– Noon - Session Two:
Would the absence of industry support of CME harm medically underserved communities?
Moderator: Peter Pitts, President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
Marissa Seligman, PharmD – Chief, Clinical and Regulatory Affairs and Compliance Officer, SVP, Pri-Med Institute
Gary Puckrein, PhD National Minority Quality Forum
Thomas Sullivan, President, Rockpointe Broadcasting
Leonard Bielory, MD, Chair, Department of Asthma and Immunology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Noon -12:30 pm - Conclusion:
Harry Sweeney, Coalition for Healthcare Communication
Peter Pitts, President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
~RSVP ~
Mario Coluccio
212.417.9169
mcoluccio@cmpi.org
This event is being co-sponsored by: Coalition for Healthcare Communication |
