What's New
New Topics for the CPD Community
We are leading the way in continuing medical education (CME) for the health sciences professionals of today and tomorrow. That means we're at the forefront of helping UC San Diego foster innovative and needs-based education. Here you will find information about current events, initiatives, and recent issues of the CPD Newsletter. Do you have a topic of interest for the CPD community?
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Updated CMA Standards for Cultural & Linguistic Competency and Implicit Bias
In August, 2021, the California Medical Association issued updated cultural and linguistic competency (CLC) standards and created standards for implicit bias (IB) that reduce health disparities, as well as comply with state law. CME providers must meet the various components to comply with state law beginning on January 1, 2022, and thereafter.
New Rules for Managing Integrity and Independence in Continuing Education
In January 2021, the following agencies announced the release of the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education to replace the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education's (ACCME) Standards for Commercial Support issued in 2014:
- Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
- Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) Standards (PDF)
- American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
- American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
- Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry's Council on Optometric Practitioner Education (ARBO/COPE)
- Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education (JA-IPCE)
Accredited providers of any of these agencies are expected to be in full compliance with the new Standards as of January 1, 2022
Why new Standards? The goal of the new Standards is to better support our common goal to ensure that education is about what is best for patients and clinicians, not about financial incentives, to ensure that participants are free to learn without bias or influence by receiving the highest quality education guided by data, evidence, and science, and to safeguard clinician and public trust in our endeavors to protect public health.
What changed? The previous standards were reorganized, and many accreditor policies were integrated directly into the new Standards. In addition, new terminology has been introduced:
- Commercial interests are now Ineligible Companies
- Resolving COI is now Mitigating Relationships
- Accredited Continuing Education refers to all CE, not just CME/CPE/CNE
Highlights of the new Standards:
- Collection of financial relationships from all persons involved in the activity must take place at the beginning stages of planning.
- Review and mitigation of relevant financial relationships must take place prior to an individual's role in the activity is confirmed.
- Individuals disclose ALL financial relationships, not just those they think are relevant.
- Individuals disclose relationships held in the prior 24 months (changed from 12 months).
- Individuals do not determine relevance of their own relationships.
- The requirement to disclose financial relationships of the spouse/partner was removed.
- A statement that relationships have been mitigated must be included in disclosure to learners.
- Faculty are prohibited from promoting or selling products or services in accredited education.
- Consent must be obtained from learners before sharing their information.
- Accredited activities and marketing or non-accredited activities must be separated by a 30-minute interval if they occur in the same educational space.