Guidelines for CME activities accredited by the EBVS

Continuing Medical Education (CME) can be defined ‘educational activities that serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills and professional performance (and) relationships used by a physician to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession’. It is a professional responsibility for all practicing physicians and it has become increasingly important in a fast moving medical world. Many CME activities are organized on a national level. For CME organized on a European level, the European Board of Vascular Surgery of the UEMS (Union Europeenne des Medicins Specialistes) has accepted a responsibility concerning the quality of these CME activities. It is important to realize that the EBVS is not a provider of Continuing Medical Education (CME) but must be seen as an independent authority that by its activities may assist as a clearinghouse for CME credits from a European to a national level. The EBVS has proposed accreditation for European Vascular CME activities since 1999. The CME Committee has been very active and accredits many European vascular meetings each year according to simple published criteria. Criteria for CME initially focused on major meetings in order to ensure that our criteria were reliable. CME activities have now been extended to technical skills workshops, again with specific and transparent criteria. Why are guidelines necessary? Traditionally, the pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers have generously supported CME for physicians. Without industrial support, the quality of many activities would have been reduced and some activities would have been cancelled. During the last decade physicians, editorial boards of scientific journals and authorities have increasingly scrutinised the role of industry supporting these activities. – 5 The basis for the concern is that scientific activities may be used for promotional activities without clearly identifying these activities. In 1993, Mannick reported on the ‘scientific symposium’ grafted onto the national meetings. For many of these both the programme and the speakers were picked and sponsored by a company. Under these circumstances an unbiased presentation is difficult to attain. It is clear that a conflict of interest may easily occur if organizers of CME activities need the support of the industry. In fact, travel funds, honoraria for nominal consultancies, free lunches, elegant dinners accompanied by product demonstrations and guest lectures with favourable views of the sponsors’ products all threaten our integrity. Fortunately, both CME providers and the industry have recognized this issue and both are keen to resolve the problem. The CME Committee of the European Board of Vascular Surgery has discussed this issue at length and believes that for both CME providers and industry, as well as for the participants of CME activities, it would be helpful to provide clear and objective guidelines describing the relationship between the various parties. These guidelines are meant to stimulate a healthy and clear relationship between organizers of CME activities and the industry. The EBVS of the UEMS approved these Guidelines on 2nd September 2003 in Dublin. The Guidelines are published on the website of the EBVS and will be handed to both CME providers and the industry. For practical purposes the Guidelines have been subdivided into those for providers of CME activities, speakers and faculty and industrial sponsors. The Guidelines will be evaluated regularly and comments are encouraged. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg 27, 534–536 (2004) doi: 10.1016/j.ejvs.2004.02.003, available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com on