TEST YOURSELF
Test your medical meeting planning knowledge with these sample questions from the test for PMPN’s Certificate in Medical Meeting Management program.
1. List the five guidelines regarding ethical standards for sponsors of CME activities.
2. What are the six guidelines regarding gifts to physicians?
3. Describe the implications of Office of Inspector General (OIG) guidelines for medical meeting managers.
Answers
1. The five guidelines regarding ethical standards for sponsors of CME activities are as follows.
I. Physicians involved in the sponsorship of CME activities should ensure that (a) the program is balanced, with faculty members presenting a broad range of scientifically supportable viewpoints related to the topic at hand; and (b) representatives of industry or other financial contributors do not exert control over the choice of moderators, presenters or other faculty, or modify the content of faculty presentations.
II. Sponsors should not promote CME activities in a way that encourages attendees to violate the guidelines of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, including Opinion 8.061, “Gifts to Physicians from Industry,” or the principles established for the AMA’s Physician Recognition Award.
III. Any non-CME activity that is primarily promotional must be identified as such to faculty and participants, both in its advertising and at the conference itself.
IV. The entity presenting the program should not profit unfairly or charge a fee that is excessive for the content and length of the program.
V. The program, content, duration and ancillary activities should be consistent with the ideals of the AMA CME program.
2. The six guidelines regarding gifts to physicians are as follows.
I. Any gifts accepted by physicians individually should primarily entail a benefit to patients and should not be of substantial value.
II. Individual gifts of minimal value are permissible as long as the gifts are related to the physician’s work (e.g., pens and notepads).
III. The gathering at which the gift is given should a) be dedicated primarily to promoting objective scientific and educational activities and discourse, and b) have its focus be on furthering knowledge on the topic(s) being presented. An appropriate disclosure of financial support or conflict of interest also should be made.
IV. Any monetary subsidy accepted by the conference should in turn be used to reduce the conference’s registration fee. Payments to defray the costs of a conference should not be accepted directly from the company by the physicians attending the conference.
V. Subsidies from industry should not be accepted directly or indirectly to pay for the costs of travel, lodging or other personal expenses of physicians attending conferences or meetings, nor should subsidies be accepted to compensate for the physicians’ time.
VI. Scholarship or other special funds to permit medical students, residents and fellows to attend carefully selected educational conferences may be permissible as long as the selection of students, residents or fellows who will receive the funds is made by the academic or training institution.
3. The implications of OIG guidelines for medical meeting managers can be described as follows.
The OIG warns that supplying doctors with gifts, recreation, travel, meals and entertainment could violate fraud, abuse and anti-kickback laws. In setting the guidelines, OIG speaks about modest gifts and the attendance of spouses or guests. Meeting managers must take these items into account when developing meeting standards and logistics. Meeting planners must be cognizant of the difference between educational (independent) and promotional activities and ensure that there is no bias in any independent activity. n H.R.S.
Source: Professional Meeting Planners Network
James Montague,
CEO of the Professional
Meeting Planners Network,
is on a credential crusade.
It’s arguable that medical
meetings are one of the trickiest, most pitfall-laden
types of meetings a planner can take on. In addition to standard
logistical concerns about F&B, audiovisual, rooming lists and
so on, medical meeting planners also have to worry about complying
with various sets of arcane and seemingly ever-shifting rules
governing how such events are paid for, structured and conducted.
In recent years, legislation governing medical meetings has grown
even more stringent and complex.
This need for specialized expertise is
what led the Professional Meeting Planners Network to create the
first-ever certification for medical meeting managers. The program,
which promises to add a new set of letters to a planner’s name --
CMMM, for Certified Medical Meeting Manager -- is made up of three
separate modules. The first module includes general knowledge of
adult education and the development of continuing medical education
(CME) programs; the second covers the basics of meeting management;
and the third module digs into the rules and regulations governing
medi-cal meetings.
Three primary sets of rules are covered
in the third module: the PhRMA Code, CME guidelines and Office of
Inspector General guidelines. These regulations spell out (though
not always in easy-to-understand language) what is and is not
acceptable when planning a medical meeting.
Scott Graham, president of the
Chillicothe, Ohio-based planning company Excellent Meetings,
participated in the first CMMM pilot alongside Andy Silver, a
director of training for the Michigan Department of Community
Health. After the two went through the program, they were chosen by
PMPN to calibrate it. It’s an endeavor that Graham, for one,
believes is important: “The development of pharmaceutical
guidelines since 2002 has caused a lot of change in the industry,”
he says, “and this change needs to be conveyed to those who are
planning these meetings. As professionals, we are always trying to
be on top of our game to assist our clients, so we have to know
what these guidelines are and how they came about.”
Prior to the CMMM’s development, there
wasn’t a formal way in which medical meeting planners could learn
the rules they needed to know to do their jobs well -- not to
mention legally. That’s why, in the fall of 2004, the idea for the
CMMM began to be explored internally within PMPN. In October 2005,
according to James Montague, the organization’s president and CEO,
PMPN worked with its own handpicked Content Advisory Board to
assemble the information that would become the program’s first
pilot version. “Originally,” Montague says, “it was designed for
on-site medical meetings -- that got the ball rolling -- but the
knowledge contained within the program is not only for that.
Someone has to be aware of the guidelines, to know what is
acceptable and what is not.”
In September 2006, after PMPN’s Content
Advisory Board completed their work, an initial group of 13
planners sat down to take the 100-question test. (See “Test
Yourself,” right, for a sampling of the questions and answers.)
Since that first dress rehearsal of the
CMMM program, the response that PMPN has received regarding it has
been favorable. After the pilot was completed, says Montague, “300
people wrote to ask when the next one would be.” He sees this as
evidence that medical planners are truly hungry for a way “to take
this dry body of knowledge and make it applicable in their
day-to-day.”
Another group of planners now has that
opportunity: The second pilot program, the result of a year’s worth
of tweaks and revisions by Graham and Silver, got under way at the
end of last October. On Jan. 19, this group of 10 Chicago-area
medical meeting planners will take the certification test.
As for the future of the CMMM, Montague
is optimistic -- but cautiously so. “There’s been an outpouring of
people who see a need for this,” he says. “The biggest client of
ours to express interest has been Advanced Health Media in New
Jersey, which might like to put 200 to 300 meeting planners through
the CMMM -- so once we get this fine-tuned and finished, we’ll get
back to them.” But despite this favorable response, for the program
to be accepted by the medical meeting industry as a whole, it will
need to be adopted by an independent accrediting body, similar to
the Certified Meeting Professional and Certificate in Meeting
Management designations today.
PMPN has spoken to the Convention
Industry Council about taking over the program after the second
pilot is complete, but the CIC views the CMMM as an “emphasis,”
rather than a standalone certification, says Montague, like an
undergraduate English degree with an emphasis in creative writing,
or a geology degree with an emphasis in paleontology. “At this
point,” Montague says, “they’re not one of the takers.”
PMPN also is seeking support from both
the Alliance for CME: The International Association of CME
Professionals and the Global Alliance for Medical Education, as
well as from a small group of universities. Unfortunately, as of
today, great strides toward getting the CMMM accredited have not
yet been made. “Right now,” Montague says, “we’re just working
through the details.”