Physician Education (CME)
Physician Education Key Opinion Leaders, Medical Science Liaisons, & CME
It’s a new era for pharmaceutical company support of physician education. New guidelines and regulations from various governmental and non-governmental regulatory bodies have come into play during the past few years. The second event defining this new era was the withdrawal of Vioxx from the market in 2004 and the subsequent re-emergence of the importance of physicians as “learned intermediaries.”
More than ever, it is important to educate physicians about new drugs and to keep this education separate from the marketing function of the company yet aligned with commercial goals.
This Special Supplement to Pharma Marketing News is critical reading for pharmaceutical companies and physician education service providers wishing to understand the new roles of key opinion leader physicians (KOLs) and medical science liaisons (MSLs) in the physician education process.
approx. 27 pages.
Download this collection now. It’s FREE…
Reprint List Adobe Connect for eDetailing
Making Physician Communications More Effective
This article focuses on Adobe Connect for eDetailing, a specific collaboration between Adobe and ConnectSolutions, a leading provider of private cloud deployments of web conferencing and collaboration solutions.
Branded Physician Education: How to Integrate Promotion and Education
While funding for CME may have shifted out of the control of the marketing departments at most pharma companies, there is still a desire for marketing to reach out to physicians with educational promotional programs that are more within their control. MedPoint Communications, a marketing and educational services company headquartered in Evanston, IL, manages multi-channel, “within label medical education” programs for its pharmaceutical clients.
Building the “New” Pharma Physician Marketing Model
MedTera’s HC Professional “Life Long Learning” Platform
This article reviews MedTera’s HC Professional “Life Long Learning” Platform — branded integrated physician marketing solutions — and presents a summary of research on how brand teams see the mix of marketing tactics changing over the next several years.
Capturing & Reporting HCP-Related Meeting Spending
Let the Sunshine In
Life Science companies are struggling to understand the complex reporting requirements and compliance issues presented by existing and new regulations like the Sunshine Act. This article is a summary of a Webinar by StarCite, which defined what pharma marketers and meeting planners need to know when it comes to meetings-related HCP reporting.
Certain Physician-Drug Industry Relationships Have Declined Dramatically
Sunshine Act May Already Be Causing Sharp Drop in Direct Payments to Physicians
The authors of a physician survey published in the November 8, 2010, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine conclude ‘given that 83.8% of physicians have PIRs, it is clear that industry still has substantial financial links with the nation’s physicians. These findings support the ongoing need for a national system of disclosure of PIRs [Physician-Drug Industry Relationships].’ Such a system is part of the Physician Sunshine Law, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2012 with public disclosure of payments scheduled to begin September, 2013.
The Changing Landscape of Physician Interactions
Pharmaceutical companies are under increasing pressure to reduce costs, speed the time-to-market for new products and ensure that physicians are informed and educated about their products.
MERGE Rx recognizes this need and offers a new generation of Web-enabled software that helps pharmaceutical companies manage physician interactions — including key opinion leader (KOL) management, phaseIV trials, and eDetailing — from a single, secure and scalable access point.
Topics and issues covered include:
- Eight Great Ways to Improve Interactions
- Multi-Channel Non Personal Interactions
- Personalization
- Key Opinion Leader Management
The Changing World of MSLs: Determining Value
This article is an edited transcript of the May 2006, Pharma Marketing Roundtable discussion, which was devoted to exploring issues surrounding the new roles of medical science liaisons (MSLs) and key opinion leader physicians (KOLs) in physician education and product marketing.
Checking Under the Hood of Pharma Mobile Apps
Be Aware of What’s Behind the App: Disclaimers Tell Only Part of the Story
Let’s look ‘under the hoods’ of two pharma-sponsored mobile apps and compare disclaimers. We’ll compare Janssen’s PASI calculator, which has an update disclaimer, with the new AFib Educator 2.0 app developed by Sanofi-Aventis.
CME Provider/Pharmaceutical Partnerships – Are They Possible Without Conflict of Interest?
This article answers the following questions regarding pharma support of academic CME providers: What strategies should a pharmaceutical company follow to ensure a successful partnership with an academic CME provider? What’s an appropriate measure for outcomes (ROI)? What % of income from academic CME programs comes from pharma support?
Collaborating with Online Physician Communities
Pharma-Physician Peer-to-Peer Dialog via Sermo
Pfizer and Sermo — a Web-based community where physicians share observations from daily practice, discuss emerging trends and provide new insights into medications, devices and treatments — recently announced a “strategic collaboration designed to redefine the way physicians in the U.S. and the healthcare industry work together to improve patient care.”
To answer the many questions raised by this collaboration — including concerns about off-label communications — Pharma Marketing News invited Daniel Palestrant, M.D., founder and CEO of Sermo, to be a guest on a recent Pharma Marketing Talk podcast.
This article is based partly on that interview as well as other sources.
Topics and issues covered include:
- The Story of Sermo
- Doctors Are Lonely
- Sermo’s Secret Sauce
- Sermo’s Business Model
- From Contention to Collaboration
- Mining the Wisdom of the Sermo Crowd
- Guidelines
- The Off-Label Promotion Issue
- Key Opinion Leaders
Compliance with (Some) New ACCME Rules Not So Easy
At the end of September 2004, the seven member organizations of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) unanimously approved the 2004 Updated ACCME Standards for Commercial Support: Standards to Ensure the Independence of CME. When these rules go into effect in July 2005, it is unclear how they will affect industry participation and support of CME or how these rules change the status quo for Providers soliciting CME support from industry. A panel of experts at the recent CBI 5th Annual Continuing Medical Education conference in Princeton, NJ tackled these issues. The discussion is summarized in this article.
Crowd Sourced Creative Commons Drug Information
Pitfalls & Opportunities for Pharma
Whether or not it is “beneficial” for pharma company employees to edit Wikipedia information about their own company’s products is difficult to know for certain. This article summarizes the pros and cons of pharmaceutical companies editing Wikipedia articles to correct “misinformation” about their drugs.
Direct to Physician Telemarketing and Sales
The point of diminishing returns in the sales trench warfare has been reached. For most companies it makes no sense economically to add field staff, especially to cover “white” territories spread across large, mostly rural areas. Another option is telemarketing offered by companies such as ADG Pharmaceutical Biotech Marketing (ADG), which specializes in providing hosted telemarketing services for the pharmaceutical, life sciences and biotech industries.
Topics covered include:
- Outsourced Telemarketing
- Demonstrable Return on Investment — A Sales case Study
- Market Research
- Seminar & Webinar Recruitment
The Emerging Virtual Medical Conference
Opportunities for Pharma, HCPs and Patients
This article describes the changes occurring viz-a-viz major medical conferences and the impact this will have on the pharmaceutical industry, medical societies, healthcare professionals, and patients.
Facilitating Physician Access and Education Through Online Conferencing
Access to physicians is becoming more and more of a problem. Doctors need immense amounts of medical information, but their patient loads limit their ability to see pharma sales reps or attend conferences or other educational activities away from their offices at such venues as local restaurants and hotels. And it is impractical to bring KOLs and experts into the physician’s office. One way to bring these resources to physicians is through Web conferencing. This report describes a turnkey system that is being used effectively to host 6,000 live online events per year, attended by some 300,000 physicians around the world.
Fast Start to Customized ePromotion and eLearning Physician Programs
There is a broad spectrum of online promotional and educational opportunities that pharmaceutical companies have at their disposal to interact with, inform, and influence physicians. Lathian Systems, a provider of online marketing and sales solutions, offers these and more in its Spectrum of Solutions for life science companies.
FDA Finalizes Guidance on Distribution of Reprints
Clarifies How Manufacturers Can Hand Out Journal Articles to Docs
The FDA recently finalized its Good Reprint Practices for the Distribution of Medical Journal Articles. This article outlines the major provisions of the guidance and helps you learn how to make it work for your company.
FDA’s Good Reprint Practices Guidance
Pros and Cons of the Proposed Rules for Distribution of Off-Label Information
Medical journals may soon become the pharmaceutical industry’s newest physician marketing partner. On Friday, February 15, 2008, the FDA published its draft guidance on “Good Reprint Practices for the Distribution of Medical Journal Articles … on Unapproved New Uses of Approved Drugs…”
This article summarizes some of issues raised by FDA’s proposal that pundits and experts are debating on the Internet, in the press and in official comments submitted to the FDA. It also presents preliminary results of an online survey sponsored by Pharma Marketing News.
Topics and issues covered include:
- Summary of FDA’s Proposed “Good Reprint Practices”
- Preliminary Survey Results
- Role of American Enterprise Institute
- Summary of Section 401 of FDAMA
- Peer-Review
- Includes comments from Pharma Marketing Roundtable members
Free Gifts to Physicians: What’s the Big Deal?
Pharma Marketing News hosted an online survey and a Pharma Marketing Expert Roundtable discussion on the topic of pharma gifts to physicians. This article summarizes the findings of that survey and includes comments and insights from survey respondents and Roundtable members.
Gamification
Now and Then
There’s a lot of brouhaha these days in pharma circles about ‘gamification’ as if it were the newest thing since sliced bread. These days, however, it may be easier for a pharma company to create a real-life museum educational gaming experience than a virtual world game on Facebook. Way back in 1984, gamification was much simpler.
Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Generation X Salesman
This scathing review of the book ‘Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,’ which is a tell-a-lot-but-not-all about pharmaceutical sales, explores the connection between flagging sales force effectiveness and the generation gap between Boomers and Gen-Xers. ‘Dude,’ read it!
The Internet and CME
Despite the fact that physician usage of the Internet has increased over the past few years, solid evidence for the reasons they access the Internet or, more importantly, if the knowledge they gained from online CME presentations has any impact on their practice is still largely unknown.
The iPad as a Pharma Marketing Platform
Is It a Game-Changer for Consumer & Physician Access?
This article summarizes how the iPad is currently being used by the pharmaceutical industry, how it is being adopted by physicians, and what the roadblocks are to using it for eDetailing.
Topics include:
- iPad – What’s It Good For?
- The iPad as a Pharma Marketing Platform
- GoMeals
- More Consumer Apps
- Opening Doors to Physicians
- iPad for eDetailing
- DrChrono.com Featured on Pharma Marketing Talk Radio
- Is It Just Another Tablet Device?
- Does No Flash Mean No eDetailing?
- iAds for Pharma?
- Is Pharma Blocking or Supporting iPad Use by Sales Reps?
Many Physicians Plan to Buy It
The iPad in the Doctor’s Office
Understanding What Physicians and Patients Desire from mHealth Applications
The Apple iPad has also become a “must have” for pharmaceutical sales reps, but how are physicians and their patients using the iPad within the clinical setting? That was the focus of a study done by a team consisting of healthcare professionals in an NYU Langone Medical Center department, led by Douglas Elwood, MD, MBA, who is currently Director, GMI Strategy and Innovation at Bristol-Myers Squibb. This article reviews the latest results of that study.
Is It Time to End Industry Sponsored CME?
Preliminary results from a survey of Pharma Marketing News readers about their views regarding industry sponsorship of accredited CME, including views on value, bias, ACCME firewalls, and alternative means of CME support.
Limiting Bias in Commercially Supported CME
How Can Bias in Commercially-Sponsored CME Be Limited?
Many critics of pharma-supported CME believe this support leads to bias. Between 9 May 2011 and 13 September 2011, readers of Pharma Marketing News were asked to answer a few short questions relating to potential bias in industry-supported CME programs and how to limit the need for industry funding of CME. The results are summarized in this article.
Managing Medical Science Liaisons From Afar
Managing a winning team of Medical Liaisons, MLs, from afar, not only demands proper selection of highly driven, self-motivated and scientifically-fluent professionals, but also requires a manager’s recognition and vision of ‘top-down-bottom-up’ leadership style: consistent, rapid long distance communication, a team-shared vision of goals and responsibilities, and a working foundation of trust for overall success and ML job satisfaction. This article reviews a presentation made by Mario Sylvestri, Pharm.D, PhD, Senior Director Medical Informatics and Communications, Amylin Pharmaceuticals.
Medical Science Liaisons: Working between Two Worlds
Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) have assumed a pivotal role interfacing between pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and the opinion and thought leaders (OTLs) who influence how medicine is routinely practiced. This article highlights how MSLs can maximize their unique position to help improve medical care while they enhance their companies’ bottom lines.
Mobile Medical Reference: An Effective Door Opener for Sales Reps
Pharmaceutical companies are searching for new, creative solutions to the problem of decreasing sales rep effectiveness. One such solution is to provide physicians with value-added smart tools to allow them instant access to up-to-date prescribing and treatment information.
Mobile Regulatory Fears
PhRMA Raises an Alarm
In a blog post provocatively titled ‘An App for That, But For How Much Longer?’, PhRMA’s Kate Connors agreed with a Washington Times op-ed piece that suggested the FDA will soon require apps such as medication prescription renewal reminders and blood glucose level tracking functions to be regulated as medical devices. The op-ed author, Joel White, executive director of the Health IT Now Coalition, suggests that this effort would lead to increased costs as well as constraints on user access to these apps, which ‘may cause developers to move on to other, less burdensome endeavors.’ ‘In the end, this could hinder the way that patients can actively improve their own care,’ said Conners. Is this fear warranted? Are there apps that SHOULD be regulated by the FDA? Read this article and find out.
Motivating & Retaining The MSL: What Makes MSLs Tick
In addition to her clinical and professional role as an experienced and successful MSL for Sepracor in the Indianapolis, IN area, Erin Albert, R.Ph, MBA, has spent a considerable amount of time researching and gathering psychometric data about her peers’ job satisfaction in their current MSL roles.
MSL Role in Educational Development
This article reviews a presentation by Bob Reina, MS, MBA, Vice President of the Veritas Institute for Medical Education, and Sharon Schneider, PsyD, MBA, Program Director, Medical Education, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals Inc., entitled “Field Liaisons Team Effectiveness, The Role of the MSL in the Medical Education Setting.”.
MSL Roles & Goals
MSLs Need Variety of Talents
Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) today face unprecedented challenges in developing and managing strong clinically-focused relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs). Many presenters at a recent CBI Annual Forum on Field-Based Dissemination of Scientific Information held in Philadelphia spoke candidly and openly about these challenges and how they are being met by the industry.
This article summarizes several presentations made at this meeting.
Topics covered include:
- Necessary Tools: Structure, Tracking, and Partnering
- MSLs Need Variety of Talents
- How MSLs Support R&D
- Contrasts between MSLs and Sales Representatives
- Handling Unsolicited Requests by HCPs
Multichannel Marketing
Easy to Brag About, but Difficult to Do
Multichannel pharma marketing is conceptually relatively simple to understand, but incredibly difficult in practice, says Len Starnes, former Head of Digital Marketing & Sales, General Medicine at Bayer Schering Pharma. That said, multichannel is not a transient phenomenon, it’s here to stay. Starnes hosted a survey on LinkedIn to answer the question: When will pharma marketing become de facto multichannel marketing in future?
Multichannel Marketing & Medical Reprints
Putting Science on iPads, Apps, and HCP Websites
The distribution of medical reprints to healthcare professionals (HCPs) by sales reps is not only a logistical problem but a channel problem as well. Reprints Desk helps pharmaceutical companies to deploy copyrighted e-prints and other marketing materials via iPads and other tablets, or via their own apps and websites in a controlled manner as part of a multichannel marketing campaign.
Murky Physician Marketing and Education Practices
This commentary takes a look at some “murky” (ie, non-transparent) physician marketing practices and presents opinions from several Pharma Marketing Blog polls and commentators.
Topics and issues covered include:
- Physician Consultant Fees
- The Case of Dr. Nissen
- When is a Free Lunch More Than Just Lunch?
- It’s Access, Stupid!
- Dumb Blonde Reps vs. Slovenly Genius Reps
Online CME – A Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This article looks at data regarding online CME – number of physicians doing CME online, etc. It also includes a case study of a popular pharma-sponsored online CME program, which highlights the necessary ingredients for success.
Pharma Begins to Reveal Payments to Physicians
Analyzing the Numbers and Spreading the Sunshine
This article reviews the physician payment lists published by Lilly, Merck, and GSK. The analysis gives us more insight into the fees paid by various companies, how the money was distributed by state and region in the US, and what types of activities (eg, speaker fees vs. consulting fees) physicians were paid to perform.
Pharma, Physicians, and Sermo: A Social Media Win-Win-Win!
A Social Media Win-Win-Win!
This article provides an overview of Sermo’s new Client Center and summarizes a Pharma Marketing Talk podcast interview of with Daniel Palestrant, Sermo’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
Pharma-Sponsored Medical Ghostwriting: What the Ghosts Have to Say About It
What the Ghosts Have to Say About It
Pharma Marketing News surveyed readers to determine if medical journal articles sponsored and ghostwritten by drug companies are a legitimate part of marketing to physicians and to get opinions on various other issues raised in the press about ghostwriting.
PhRMA Code Helps Re-define Roles of Medical Affairs and Marketing
This article discusses marketing to physicians in light of the industry self-regulatory Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals as well as the final OIG Compliance Program Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.
PhRMA Code Succeeding — So Far
This article summarizes the views of Scott Willoughby, Senior Manager of Ernst & Young and former Assistant General Counsel to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of American (PhRMA) with regard to the current state of compliance with the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals and how it is impacting sales effectiveness.
PhRMA’s Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals
To better understand the impact on the pharmaceutical industry of PhRMA’s Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals, Pharma Marketing News surveyed readers between July 10, 2008 and August 7, 2008, and collected comments from pharma-focused blogs and bulletin boards. This article is a summary of the PMN survey results and opinions of experts, bloggers, and anonymous commentators.
Physician-Generated Content on Social Media Sites
Survey of DocCheck Members
This article highlights results of a survey of physician members of DocCheck, a leading European physician online social network and portal site. The survey assessed the type of networks used, the frequency of posting, motivation for posting, estimation of network usage, relevance of content posted and an evaluation of the importance of online physician-generated content in the future.
Physicians Are Concerned About Pharma Support of CME
But Are Unwilling to Pay Their Own Way!
Talk about having your cake and eating it too! Commercial funding of continuing medical education (CME) and the potential for bias appear to concern many physicians, yet only a TINY MINORITY (7%) are willing to pay registration fees to eliminate or offset commercial funding sources, according to a report in the May 9, 2011, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Physician Meetings
Education Works Both Ways
This article reviews the physician meeting logistics and planning capabilities of Alliance Communications, which has worked with pharma companies and key opinion leaders since 1987.
Physician Participation in Peer-to-Peer Social Media Sites
This article summaries research data exploring why physicians interested in using online peer-to-peer social communities outnumber by 2 to 1 physicians who are actually using them. Includes suggestions for what these communities must do in order to provide more value to physicians.
Proposed Rules for Physician Payment Sunshine Act
Looming Challenges Cloud Implementation
This article reviews the strategic implications of the Sunshine Act and also presents highlights of the draft regulations rule released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on December 15, 2011.
Reporting Gifts to Physicians
Massachusetts and several other states have put either banned all gifts to physicians by pharmaceutical companies, placed limits on gifts, or or considering doing so. At least ‘sunshine’ acts have been proposed in Congress as well. This article reviews some aspects of these ‘sunshine’ laws and focuses on a recent CALPIRG analysis of drug company gifts to physicians.
Rep Access Programs
Skyscape’s RAP Opens Doors to Meaningful Dialogs
Skyscape, a Marlborough, MA company that provides interactive, intelligent health solutions for desktop and mobile devices, offers a medically-relevant service that is highly sought-after among physicians. As a result, it has become a popular and effective tool for field representatives to gain access to practitioners. This article describes this program and how it can increase your product’s market share.
Topics and issues covered include:
- Just What the Doctor Ordered
- Gifts Should Improve Patient Care
- Skyscape’s Portfolio
- Pharma Services that Physicians Value Most (chart)
- Open Doors Again and Again
- Case Study
- Branded for a Lasting Impression
- Skyscape Survey Results: Trends in Point-of-Care Mobile Technology
Responding to the Challenges of Evolving Regulation
A point-counterpoint assessment of ACCME’s draft Standards for Commercial Support (SCS) and its effect on the partnership between accredited CME providers and pharmaceutical supporters.
Right & Wrong Ways for Pharma to Correct Misinformation on Wikipedia
Some Guidelines for Pharma
In a recent report, the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics noted that Wikipedia articles on health issues are “in flux” and that there is a need for “knowledgeable editors” to keep the information as current and unbiased as possible.
Should the pharmaceutical industry or agents of the industry step up and edit content on Wikipedia?
This article discusses both the right and wrongs ways for pharma to do this using real-life examples.
The Scientific Path to Corporate Leadership
Three pharmaceutical company CEOs discuss their path from science to leadership and the role of medical science liaisons.
Topics and issues covered include:
- The Seven Fundamental Elements of OIG Compliance
- Handling Unsolicited Requests from Physicians
- The Relationship between R&D and the MSL Team
- Science and Corporate Leadership
- Classic Sales Rep: An Endangered Species?
- Case Study: Laurence J. Downey
- Ernest Mario, a Horatio Algier Story
Slides: The Currency of Communication
Review of Blue Grotto’s “Slide Collaborator”
Slides are the currency of communication in the pharmaceutical industry. To help facilitate the team collaboration in the development and approval of slide kits, Blue Grotto Technologies, Inc., a medical education technology company based in Plymouth Meeting, PA, has developed “Slide Collaborator,” which is reviewed in this article.
Some Unregulated Physician Smartphone Apps May Be Buggy
Especially “Calculator” Apps Like These…
Practically every pharmaceutical company has one or more apps. The ones I am interested in are apps designed to help doctors in their diagnosis of patients. Big among these are the “calculator” apps, which calculate things such as glomerular filtration rate (GFR), Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), Delayed Graft Function (DGF) Risk, creatinine clearance, dosing algorithms, Body Mass Index (BMI), and, my favorite, Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). At least one of these apps has been recalled due to a software bug. But recalling does not mean it’s not still being used by physicians.
The State of CME in Europe
A Work in Progress
Continuing Medical Education (CME) in Europe has undergone some major shifts in recent years. These have varied across Europe: from national changes in which systems have moved from being voluntary to mandatory, to the establishment of more formal systems to guide physicians on how to keep up-to-date with latest clinical practice.
This article, written two European CME consultants, provides an overview of the state of CME in the UK, France, and other European countries.”>
A Strategic Approach to CME Offers High Return on Education Investment
Jan Heybroek, Vice President at Imedex®, Inc., an accredited worldwide CME provider located in Alpharetta, Georgia, estimates that pharmaceutical companies spend about 7% of their marketing budget (excluding samples) on educational activities. “However, many pharma companies lack interest in the return on education investment or ROEI data our programs are able to provide,” says Heybroek.
This article reviews Imedex’s approach to developing CME programs.
Thought-Leader Management: A Challenge Met
Pharmaceutical companies are continually working to establish and maintain relationships with thought leaders — influential physicians who play an important role in communicating a new therapy’s benefits for other physicians. Thought Leaders — also known as Key Opinion Leaders, or KOLs — help pharmaceutical companies identify unmet medical needs, shape clinical studies, launch products and understand critical lifecycle issues.
However, across the medical device and pharmaceutical industries, thought leader management programs have not been as effective as internal management would like, particularly in the age of the Internet, when the dissemination of information should be easier than ever, according to John Estafanous, President of Bethesda, Maryland-based Estco Medical.
This article reviews Medigent® Thought Leader, a Web-based software suite designed to dramatically improve a pharma company’s communications with Key Opinion Leaders
Trends in Commercial Support of CME
Separate But Aligned with Marketing
More than ever, it is important to educate physicians about new drugs and to keep this education separate from the marketing function of the company yet aligned with commercial goals.
Members and guests of the Pharma Marketing Roundtable met via conference call to discuss trends in commercial support of CME. This article summarizes that discussion.
Topics covered include:
- Will commercial (for-profit) CME providers and producers increasingly give way to academic center networks? Are the days of the large CME companies numbered?
- Which technological and media approaches for CME delivery are gaining favor…and which are losing ground?
- What role should CME play in strengthening the communicative skills of MDs in their interactions with patients? Why aren’t we seeing more of this with the advent (peaks and valleys) of DTC?
Understanding the Proposed ACCME Standards for Commercial Support
A joint presentation by John F. Kamp, Ph.D., J.D., Partner, Wiley, Rein & Fielding and Linda Casebeer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, CME at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, offered a point-counterpoint assessment of ACCME’s draft Standards for Commercial Support (SCS) and its effect on the partnership between accredited CME providers and pharmaceutical supporters.
Understanding the Strategic Value of MSLs
Strategically Envisioned, Yet Tactically Measured
This article by contributing author Neil Gray, examines why the industrys current use of tactical value measures for MSLs might ultimately prove limiting by positioning MSLs inappropriately and inhibiting their broader involvement in organizational and stakeholder problem-solving.
The author examines how tomorrow’s MSL might be employed by Pharma and discusses the strategic movement of MSLs into the competitive intelligence space, teaching roles, strategic input to and evaluation of portfolio development, and investor relations.
Topics and issues covered include:
- Difficult Times Lie Ahead
- Numerous Stakeholder Challenges
- What Do KOLs Want?
- Moving From Science Discussants to Knowledge Directors
- What the Future May Hold
Waning Pharma Support of CME: The Plight of For-Profit MECCs
Recent headlines pulled from traditional media as well as from the blogo-sphere paint a bleak picture of the future of commercial support for continuing medical education (CME). Is the pharmaceutical industry getting out of the business of supporting CME? This article summaries Congressional testimony, ACCME data, and results of a reader survey on this topic.
When Is Commercial Support Appropriate for CME Activities?
On April 1, 2004, the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), by unanimous vote, adopted the updated ACCME Standards for Commercial Support of Continuing Medical Education. This article summarizes when it is and is not appropriate for pharmaceutical companies to support independent CME programs.
Wither CME?
Congress continues to examine pharma industry support of CME and ACCME has issued some new guidance for accredited CME providers. This article examines the current state of industry support for CME and what reforms may be coming down the pike.
