No doubt there is a continuous and growing concern regarding the connection between continuing education [CE] and the sponsors who pay for it [aka: Commercial interests]. This is especially true in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device worlds. It’s anyone’s guess if the next step involves migrating these requirements to other regulated industries such as insurance CE and legal education CLE.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Ethics/15301
http://www.mmm-online.com/Nissen-ACCME-should-be-abolished/article/140874/
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200907291608DOWJONESDJONLINE000872_FORTUNE5.htm
Fortunately, there is a solution. Through educational grants, CEU Institute has worked with pharmaceutical and medical device firms to offer UNBIASED continuing education to the insurance and healthcare communities. We ensure the content and educational experience does not include marketing materials, logos, and other “solicitations”. We work independently to recruit from our own national speakers bureau for the associated topic(s) and manage disbursements such as course location expenses and honorariums.