CME Committee Update

Samuel K. Cho, MD
CME Committee Chair

As the chair of the CME committee for SRS, I had the opportunity to attend the 2019 ACCME Annual Meeting in Chicago in early May. The overall theme of the conference was “Spring Forward,” and there were a number of important topics that were addressed, ranging from physician burnout to how to screen for suicidal patients, during the three-day meeting. The interactive sessions in small groups encouraged participation from the attendees and many ideas were shared among us. In particular, one slide that the CEO of the ACCME, Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc, shared with us in the beginning of the conference made a deep impression. The translation of the slide to SRS is depicted below. As the Society begins to incorporate the Core Curriculum as a longitudinal educational approach to spine deformity and we create opportunities for personalized and collaborative assessments, I find the Society moving toward what Dr. McMahon considers the new way of CME. As the gap in knowledge and adult learning methodology continue to evolve, the CME committee will continue to promote incorporating the new values espoused by ACCME into the society’s educational offerings.

On a separate point about identifying relevant conflicts of interest, please note that the disclosure process now includes an updated definition of commercial interest from the ACCME. They define the term as “any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.” There is no minimum dollar amount for relationships to be financially significant according to the ACCME. So, next time you are disclosing your financial relationships with commercial interests, remember what the definition of commercial interest is as well as if it is relevant to the content on which you are submitting, presenting, reviewing, etc. We hope this clarification will help reduce the amount of non-commercial interests being disclosed for abstracts and presentations. For any questions, contact Lily in the SRS office, [email protected].

The CME status of our society continues to remain strong, and those members and staff who are working tireless to remain compliant with ACCME requirements ought to be commended for their efforts.

 

Chair: Samuel K. Cho Committee: David H. Clements III, Past Chair; Todd J. Albert, Past President I; Burt Yaszay, Education; Michael C. Albert; Ujjwal K. Debnath; John R. Dimar II, Education Council Chair; Bhavuk Garg (C); Paul Park (C); Ryan C. Goodwin; William F. Lavelle; Anthony M. Petrizzo; James T. Bennett; Woojin Cho; Praveen V. Mummaneni