A national therapeutic expert in cardiology was asked by a professional society to contribute slides to their web-based slide library used by their members. It became known to the client that some of the slides he provided appeared to be biased towards that companies’ product to treat hypertension. The therapeutic expert received no financial support from the company to create the slides, however, the professional society received an educational grant from the company to help maintain their slide library. To complicate matters, the client learned that this expert was scheduled to present a CME symposium in 3 days at that societies’ annual conference that was supported by the client through an educational grant. Fearing the expert would use the slides and the client would be perceived to have worked with the expert to create the slides, the client quickly sought expert outside help to avert a potential crisis and mounting criticisms regarding lack of independence between a faculty member, a CME provider and a commercial supporter.
Key: Fast response
The client chose CME Peer Review because they needed a group that could respond quickly and had the expertise to manage this emerging crisis situation. They needed a company that understood the ACCME regulations, had credibility with the ACCME and who had a network of trained subject matter experts who could provide clinical evidence to support their conclusions.
CME Peer Review quickly identified one of their conflict-free, clinical specialists in hypertension to attend, monitor and audit the CME symposium. The auditor was a physician with extensive qualifications and experience, including training by CME Peer Review enabling him to identify and document any issues with the content that might point to a lack of independence and may be perceived as bias in favor of the client’s product.
The auditor’s knowledge of the current and emerging therapies enabled him to confirm the presentation was fair, independent and lacking in commercial bias towards the client’s product. Through the use of CME Peer Review’s network of medical professionals, who can quickly respond to a “call to action”, a potential crisis was averted.
The highly credible data derived from CME Peer Review’s independent expert’s report was subsequently used by the company for internal and external purposes helping to mitigate any negative repercussions or allegations regarding lack of independence and perceived commercial bias.