Prior to each session offered, there are numerous requirements to consider and preparations to make. As you start to schedule your sessions and line up speakers (or other participants such as staff), please keep the following requirements in mind.
Marketing/Announcements
All flyers and announcements distributed advertising upcoming sessions and the availability of credit must be approved by the CME office PRIOR to distribution. This includes website postings on your departmental/division websites.
Please contact the CME office for a review of your flyer/announcement template, prior to distributing the first time. Please allow three business days for the review of all materials. Generally, once we have reviewed your template and the first few announcements, you may continue to distribute utilizing that same template. However, you must add
cmeaccred@health.ucsd.edu or MC0947 to your distribution list for all announcements.
All advertisements/announcements should include the following elements:
- UC San Diego School of Medicine logo and department information (required)
- Accreditation Statement (required)
- Credit Designation Statement (required)
- Title, Date, and Location of the Activity (required)
- Topics (required)
- Target Audience (required)
- Objectives (required)
- Faculty List (recommended)
Please visit our
tools section for additional information.
Conflict of Interest (COI) Disclosure Information
All persons involved in the planning and presentation of the RSS (including course directors, planners/coordinators, speakers, committee members, residents, and staff) must provide conflict of interest disclosure information. For many RSS, collecting one disclosure per year for the entire series is adequate as long as all potential conflicts are disclosed. Additional disclosure information should be provided if any changes are made throughout the year, such as faculty taking on a new financial relationship that is presenting a COI.
All disclosure information must be provided and dated prior to the start of the activity/session in which the person is participating.
We recommend collecting at a minimum five days prior to the activity to allow time for the Course Director to adequately manage the COI disclosed and apply appropriate resolution mechanisms.
UC San Diego CME's
web-based disclosure database allows for completion and updating of disclosure information online at any time and we encourage you to use it for your RSS. Current RSS are pre-populated into the database and you may enter disclosure information at any time. For administrator access, please contact our office.
If you choose, you may also use a
paper-based Disclosure Form.
NOTE: If a person has a conflict of interest, it is the Course Directors responsibility to review those conflict(s) and manage the associated resolution process. The
RSS Disclosure Review Form should be used to document this process. At no time can an employee/owner of a commercial interest be allowed to participate in an accredited session. For presenters with conflicts that are such that peer review of presentations are warranted, an
RSS Peer Review Form should be completed. Any invited presenter who has a financial relationship with a commercial interest also providing commercial support to the series should undergo peer review. Note that the management of all COI and associated resolution mechanisms must be performed by a Course Director (or other faculty member) who does not have any COI.
A full disclosure statement inclusive of all persons in a position to control content must be made available to the attendees/participants at each session as discussed below.
Preparation of Sign-In Sheet
The sign-in sheet is the mechanism used to ensure compliance with numerous important accreditation requirements and is required for every session. The RSS Sign-In Sheet Template to be used will be included in your approval packet.
When preparing your sign-in sheet, please make sure that the following information is correctly entered:
- Date of session
- Presentation title or topic / speaker information
- Disclosure information for course directors, speakers and anyone else not covered under the general staff/reviewer statement included on the template (check yes or no box and
if yes is selected, please list disclosures (name of company and nature of relationship))
- Commercial support (check yes or no box and
if yes is selected, please list name of commercial supporter(s))
- Accreditation statement
- Credit designation statement
- Number of credits (1.0 credit per hour of content/lecture, please refer to your approval letter to confirm number of credits awarded per session)
- Educational objectives
Preparation of Disclosure Summary (as adjunct to sign-in sheet)
Disclosure information for all persons involved in the development and presentation of content has to be made available to the attendees/participants at each session. The sign-in sheet is the standard mechanism used. However, if you are coordinating an M&M or other discussion-based series in which all attendees participate and share in the learning experience, you may opt to use the
Disclosure Summary template instead. In other words, if the attendees are the same for every session and everyone is in a position to potentially influence the content, this form can be attached to the sign-in sheet as a summary of disclosure information. The disclosure summary template should also be used if you have persons involved in the development and presentation of content such as authors or reviewers that are not covered by the sign-in sheet template.
Please make sure to include ALL persons involved in the development and presentation of the series, including your staff, course directors and presenters.
Note that you still need to use the sign-in sheet to collect attendance information and meet other accreditation requirements.
Preparation of Evaluation Form
Each RSS must be evaluated using the standardized
RSS Evaluation Form. If you wish to distribute your evaluation electronically, please make sure you include all the questions on our template or contact our office for approval of any revisions.
Multiple sessions should be selected for evaluation throughout each six-month reporting period and each RSS must be evaluated at a minimum three times semi-annually (a minimum of six times for the entire fiscal period), although we encourage more frequent evaluation. If you are receiving commercial support for your RSS, evaluation is always required during those sessions for which support has been awarded. If you have been awarded commercial support from one company for the entire series, please contact our office for assistance determining the proper number of sessions to evaluate.
Preparation of Certificates (Optional)
You are responsible for awarding certificates of attendance to your participants. Although, this can be an ongoing process with certificates issued at each session, we strongly recommend only issuing certificates semi-annually or annually. If you do prefer to issue certificates at each session, you will need to set up the certificate template accordingly, prior to each scheduled event.
Note that there are different certificate templates to use for MD/DOs and non-MDs. The RSS Certificate Templates (Physician and
Non-Physician) are available on our website.
Departments must keep a record of attendance for 6 years and be willing to respond to requests for confirmation of attendance.
Commercial Support
If you are soliciting commercial support for your RSS,
a Letter of Agreement (LOA) must be executed prior to the start of the series or session(s) for which support was awarded. The CME office must review and sign all LOAs to ensure compliance with accreditation requirements.
Please send all LOAs to
cmeaccred@health.ucsd.edu immediately upon receipt. We may also ask you to provide us with a copy of your grant proposal or grant documents submitted.
Acknowledgement of all commercial support must be provided to the learners. This can be achieved through the sign-in sheet as noted above. Please make sure to review your LOAs and acknowledge support during those sessions for which support was awarded.
This is a highly regulated area and we ask that you let our office know in advance if you plan to pursue support so that we can assist you with the tools needed to ensure compliance. All commercial support is reported in detail to the ACCME and is governed by the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support. Significant reporting requirements to CMS under the Sunshine Act may also be needed. Please take a moment and review to the
FAQs related to commercial support on our website and the
ACCME Standards for Commercial Support for further information.