Updated conflict of interest disclosure process for educational events

COI

AO has recently revised the disclosure process to meet accreditor standards as defined by the accreditation authorities for continuing education in Europe and North America (EACCME, ACCME)


What has changed:

Change 1

The disclosure pages on the AO website provides more guidance to ensure that faculty disclose ALL financial relationships with an ineligible company (any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients within the last 36 months.

Take a look at the page on your AO Dashboard Disclosures 

Change 2

Non-bias attestation statements are included in faculty event invitations to ensure minimization of bias in education. All invited contributors must review and confirm these statements.

Get familiar with the non-bias attestation statements:

☐ The content I will present/plan will be evidence-based and unbiased.

☐ Recommendations I will provide involving clinical medicine will be based on current science or evidence that is accepted within the profession as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients.

☐ If I discuss new and evolving topics for which there is a lower (or absent) evidence base I will clearly identify it as such within the education.

☐ The content I will present will only use generic names of products, or if trade names appear, the use of these names will be justified (e.g. product is known more widely for the trade name, or the product does not have a generic name).

☐ The content I present will be free of logos or other corporate identifiers of healthcare industry companies, specifically those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

☐ I will remove all patient identifiers from my presentation and only use identifiable images of patients where I have obtained written permission from the patient.

☐ If research funded by an ineligible company is presented, the information will be based on generally accepted scientific principles and methods and does not promote the commercial interest of the funding company.

☐ I will not accept honoraria or reimbursement, including travel support, from ineligible companies for my role as Chairperson/Faculty in the accredited portions of this educational activity/ event.

☐ I attest that I have read and completed this form myself and, to the best of my ability, provided current and accurate information.

☐ The content I will present/plan will be evidence-based and unbiased.

Change 3

The resolution options have been reduced to four.

  • Disclosure of conflicts and non-bias attestation 

  • Altering content assignment and non-bias attestation 

  • Peer-review / independent content validation

  • Conflict unresolvable (exclusion from event)


For guidance on the resolution look at the coi_guide-for-resolver.pdf or watch the videos:

This 3-minute video provides a definition of conflicts of interest and the description of the disclosure process.

This 2.5-minute video outlines the key elements of the resolution/mitigation process, supplemented with practical examples.

Resources