CME Spotlight: Coalition politics in European CME
pharmafile | June 24, 2010 | Feature | Medical Communications | CME, CME Spotlight
The election is now over and rather than the damp squib that I foresaw, it feels like something new and exciting may happen.
Not that my last article was intended to be a prediction of any kind. I am now able to blame my emerging cynicism on advancing years, highlighted by the fact that the two new leaders would have been in the same school year as my younger brother.
Around the same time as the election we put our home up for sale and a few days ago I finally came to paying the fee for the HIP (Home Information Pack) that we Brits have to pay for when we come to sell a house.
For years, seen as an additional tax, it was viewed as a rather futile exercise giving neither seller nor buyer any useful extra information.
By mid-morning the very next day the new government declared that as of that moment, HIPs were no longer required. How extraordinary. It added even more to my strangely buoyant feelings about this new group, drawn from a disparate collection of individuals.
The country was also awaiting details of the extensive thirty-something page document disclosing just how our motley crew of MPs were going to come together and find common grounds for agreement on how they were going govern.
Even though the small print meant that I would not get my HIP fee returned, 20 May looked like it could be an exciting day.
I was in London to take part in the first full meeting of the Good CME Practice Group. Following the inaugural meeting during the European CME Forum last November, a coalition of 13 companies signed up to participate in discussing issues of European CME and to begin the process of drawing up standards for the development and delivery of CME in Europe.
Also joining the meeting were invited guests who offered their respective insights from CME accreditation bodies and pharmaceutical companies.
The participants started by reviewing the various types of activities and relationships that could be considered suitable for CME. Clearly it should encompass independently derived educational programmes, but should the definition include activities that a drug company controls, as is possible in some European countries? The group decided not.
The core principles as agreed in November were then reviewed in turn and it was decided that as the need for high quality is something that is a driving factor for all aspects of CME, ‘quality’ should be not singled out as a separate principle, but be a common and unifying theme across all aspects of CME.
This seemed to make perfect sense and as the day progressed, a clear message began to emerge, that the main issue in European CME is not the potential problems of commercial bias, but the relevance of the education to the learner and its effectiveness.
Other factors that were examined included the need for transparency in areas of funding, choice of faculty, content development, measurement of effectiveness and how matters of conflict of interest should be addressed.
The vision of the Good CME Practice Group is to create a set of quality standards that can be reviewed and monitored, such that CME accreditation bodies can have confidence that programmes submitted for accreditation are executed to a consistently high standard, and to assure financial supporters that the programmes they are supporting are being developed to appropriate probity and quality standards.
The creation and monitoring of a set of standards for the development and implementation of CME programmes across Europe, is an important step in creating an environment of excellence and to ensure that the programmes that are developed ultimately improve performance and patient care.
The following day an article appeared in the BMJ outlining how it was partnering with a US organisation for CME accreditation of their own education.
I am sure that US readers are of high importance to the BMJ, but it seems to be a rather bizarre signal to be sending out – that the organ of the British Medical Association has chosen to partner with a US CME provider rather than to first work out something within the newly formalised mandatory CPD system in the UK.
The deputy editor stated: “We hope UK doctors will find the initiative useful when seeking revalidation with the GMC.”
Even though UK doctors have been able to use a subscription to the BMJ as part of their CME for over 15 years now – whether as part of the revalidation component of their CPD or the GPs’ PGEA system dating back to the 1990s – this important journal considers that US CME accreditation can offer additional help to UK doctors. The article mentions that further discussions are under way with European accreditation bodies.
I wonder what the UK doctors’ own Royal Colleges think about this move?
I really do not know what this all means and I hope to find out more over the coming weeks, as I am writing this article on 22 May.
There is clearly still a lot of work to do in the European CME arena with a need for the various parties to come together to work towards common goals.
There may be positive indications in this new age of renewed optimism – in the spirit of the Cameron-Clegg alliance – that divergent parties with different views can get together, eek out common grounds for collaboration and work together for the ultimate benefit of our respective target audiences.
Good CME Practice Group will present its work at the Third Annual Meeting of the European CME Forum in Berlin this November, for further details of this visit click here.
Eugene Pozniak is Managing Director of Siyemi Learning and Programme Director of European CME Forum. Email: epozniak@siyemi.org
Information about the Good CME Practice Group can be found at www.gCMEp.eu
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