AOE Compliance Connection – August 2021 Newsletter

Welcome to the August edition of AOE Compliance Connection, AOE’s monthly newsletter. In this month’s newsletter, you can expect a helpful feature on language clarification in the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, a deep dive look at Standard 5, and a focus on the past and future of the ACCME Working Groups, including a survey for you to take. As summer draws to a close, consider how AOE can equip you and your team! We’ve got you covered for accreditation and reaccreditation endeavors, outsourced CE accreditation management, outsourced CE coordination, progress report management, trainings and bootcamps, and more. Reach out to us at inquire@aoeconsulting.com to see how we can best support you!

One of the new components of the ACCME 2021 meeting was Working Groups – a “longitudinal learning experience” that began months before the actual meeting. Participants proposed the topics, seven topics were selected, and 95 participants in total were involved, including AOE staff members.

The overarching goal of the Working Groups was to create resources and tools for the CE community at large through participant collaboration. The actual work of each group took place in the weeks prior to the ACCME 2021 Meeting and was presented in the closing plenary session to all attendees.

Since the meeting, the ACCME is engaging with each Working Group to complete the project by documenting their journey and communicating their results and products to the CE community. In the coming months, expect to hear from the ACCME about each of the following groups:

• Beyond the CME Office: Professional Development of Departments and Unit-Based CME Leaders to Help Advance the Field of CME
• Virtual Marketing and Outreach: Engaging Learners in your CME Activities
• COVID-19 Response: ACCME National Survey of Providers of Continuing Professional Development
• Elevating the National Conversation on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism: Content Standards and Strategies for Accredited Continuing Education
• Keeping CME Simple: Tips to Streamline Planning and Evaluating CME Activities
• Applying Standards for Integrity & Independence in Academic CPD: Successful Frontline Management (including Sarah Ryan, PhD, AOE Program Manager)
• Mentorship for CE Professionals

One Working Group, Beyond the CME Office: Professional Development of Departments and Unit-Based CME Leaders to Help Advance the Field of CME, looked specifically at the preparedness of CME professionals to plan and deliver CME and also their engagement in ongoing professional development. They created a survey to gather information for their efforts and are asking CME professionals to contribute their voices to the data.  If you’d like to participate, click here and complete the survey before Friday, August 20.

Released in December 2020, the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education replace the established Standards for Commercial Support. As providers will be required to comply with the new Standards by January 1, 2022, now, in 2021, is an advantageous time for a deep dive into each of the 5 new Standards. As part of AOE’s efforts on behalf of our clients, we have been featuring one standard per newsletter to offer readers insight and tools beyond a surface level. Previous AOE newsletters feature in-depth information about Standard 1, Standard 2, Standard 3, and Standard 4.

Standard 5 deals with the management of ancillary activities that are offered in conjunction with accredited continuing education. It applies only when there is marketing by ineligible companies or nonaccredited education associated with the accredited continuing education. In short, accredited providers are responsible for making sure that education is clearly separate from all ineligible companies’ marketing (including advertising, sales, exhibits, and promotion) and from any nonaccredited education offered in conjunction with accredited continuing education.

The three major tenets of this standard are as follows:

1. If ineligible companies are allowed to exhibit or market in association with accredited education, they may not be allowed to influence decisions related to planning, delivery, and evaluation of the educational content; to interfere with the presentation in any way; or be a condition of the financial agreement between the ineligible company and the accredited provider.
2. The learners must be able to easily distinguish between the accredited education and the other activities. For live activities, this involves a 30-minute time period before or after the accredited education and the other activities. For print, online, or digital activities, learners must be able to engage with the content without engaging with the other activities. The content itself must be free of product promotion, advertisements, and marketing by ineligible companies, or corporate or product logos or trade names.
3. Ineligible companies are not allowed to provide access to accredited education of any kind to learners.

In its FAQ section, the ACCME clarifies a few different points about Standard 5, specific to the 30-minute time interval required between accredited and nonaccredited activities. Specifically, they clarify that for any live activity (in-person or online), the 30-minute buffer period needs to exist between the accredited and nonaccredited session, no matter which comes first.

More information about the new Standards can be found here.