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CME Standards and Policies
Statement ot Independence
Founded in 2004, North American Center for Continuing Medical Education, LLC (NACCME) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians (currently accredited through July 2011). NACCME is also accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, Council on Podiatric Medical Education, Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation), and Commission on Dietetic Registration. As an accredited provider, NACCME strictly adheres to the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support and other relevant guidelines and standards to ensure the independence of CME/CE activities. All NACCME-sponsored CME/CE activities are therefore objective, balanced, scientifically rigorous, and free of commercial bias.
Corporate Structure
NACCME, with operations in Millstone Township, NJ, is a wholly owned subsidiary of HMP Communications Holdings, LLC, headquartered in Fairfield, CT. NACCME is a sister company to HMP Communications, LLC (HMP), a medical publishing company with operations in Malvern, PA. NACCME is independent and self-directed with separate management and a firewall in place at the operational level to ensure that no employee of NACCME may direct or control the operations of HMP and no employee of HMP may direct or control the operations of NACCME. NACCME and HMP are separate legal entities with separate federal tax identification numbers and separate offices. NACCME and HMP have fully separate staff, including but not limited to employees in business development, clinical services, editorial, design and production, project management, accounting, and administrative services. NACCME and HMP also have separate communications systems (ie, phone, fax, e-mail, and server). NACCME currently employees 20+ full-time staff and maintains independent control of CME/CE planning, implementation, and financial operations.
Conflict-of-Interest Policy
NACCME is dedicated to ensuring balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all NACCME-sponsored CME/CE activities. NACCME requires all potential faculty members and program planners, in advance, to disclose financial relationships with relevant commercial interests resulting in potential conflicts of interest. If relevant financial relationships are disclosed, NACCME assesses how they may affect CME/CE content. NACCME requires faculty members to validate all treatment recommendations by disclosing the level of evidence and requires all content to be reviewed by an independent clinical reviewer before dissemination. If NACCME and the independent clinical reviewer agree that data are biased, do not represent accepted standards of US medical practice, and/or do not conform to research principles accepted by the scientific community, contributors must exclude those data and/or related conclusions or not be permitted to present. NACCME is committed to attempting to resolve all potential conflicts of interest, although if potential contributors have relevant financial relationships that cannot be reconciled, NACCME reserves the right to prohibit participation.
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