European CME Forum: First Annual Meeting, in-depth report from a meeting held in London, UK, 4-5 November 2008
16 February 2009, NetworkPharma Ltd, Oxford, UK have published another in their KeywordPharma series of Conference Insights reports intended for individuals working in and around the global pharmaceutical industry.
European CME Forum: First Annual Meeting, an in-depth report from the conference organized by NetworkPharma and Siyemi Learning, held in London 4-5 November 2008 written by Eugene Pozniak is now available for purchase.
The European landscape for continuing medical education (CME) is diverse and complex. The absence of a common framework across the region has led to individual countries developing their own national objectives and building a range of systems, each at differing stages of advancement. While similarities in approach exist, the key European markets demonstrate notable differences in both style and in how CME is being implemented. Nevertheless, a widespread appetite for collaboration and sharing best practice is driving European CME forward.
Despite such a fragmented and disparate environment, efforts to develop a recognised system for CME accreditation across Europe and to establish a harmonisation of credits and practices are progressing. Definitions of CME remain subjective and discussions continue as to whether it should just address levels of knowledge and competence, or go further and have a positive effect on clinical performance. Determining which activities actually constitute CME is similarly challenging: activities such as e-learning promise to provide the engine for CME in the future, whereas the accreditation of satellite symposia remains contentious. Meanwhile, traditional activities such as conferences and workshops continue to dominate.
In such an evolving climate, two central issues for CME development in Europe resonate loudly: the quality of programmes and the impact they have on clinical practice. Stakeholders remain determined to ensure that education is not only free from commercial bias but that it also promotes participation that leads to better clinical outcomes.
This Conference Insights report provides an in-depth review of the first annual meeting of the European CME Forum held in London, UK on 4-5 November 2008. It examines the development of CME activity across Europe, providing perspectives from the full range of stakeholders: healthcare professionals, medical societies, pharmaceutical companies, medical communications agencies and CME accreditation bodies. It explores the need to set quality standards in European CME, and to achieve harmonisation across the region. It shares implementation strategies and assesses how best to measure their success. It also looks at the critical aspect of funding, providing a basis for guidelines on how to manage conflicts of interest, avoid commercial bias and, crucially, raise standards. Clearly, maintaining a balanced relationship between healthcare professionals, CME organisations and the pharmaceutical industry remains pivotal to the future of CME.
The author, Eugene Pozniak, said: "The aim of the first meeting of the European CME Forum was to bring together all the stakeholders of European continuing medical education (CME), examine the current picture of CME (specifically in Europe), promote dialogue between the various parties involved and review the issues affecting its development."
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About the author
Eugene Pozniak is Programme Director of the European CME Forum and also Managing Director of Siyemi Learning, an independent European CME provider. He has worked in the medical sector for 20 years. Following a degree in chemistry, he initially worked across various functions in marketing and medical communications. Since 2000, he has been working exclusively in CME.
As well as managing CME-accredited meetings, Eugene developed the first pan-European CME-accredited e-learning (launched in 2002), national CME-accredited portals and has been working on European journal CME. In addition, he has developed a number of bespoke CME and ‘non-CME-non-promotional’ projects. Eugene has experience of CME across Europe, the USA, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
In 2006, Eugene founded Siyemi Learning, an independent provider of CME programmes and related services; he also supports the European CME-CPD Academy, an independent platform for accredited e-learning in Europe.
Written by pharmaceutical industry specialists, KeywordPharma publications are designed to be authoritative, relevant, succinct and helpful to pharmaceutical industry executives in their day-to-day work and in their longer term career development. Available to purchase individually as e-documents, they build into a specialist knowledge library for everyone working in and around the global pharmaceutical industry.
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NetworkPharma Ltd is an independent, specialist company founded by Peter Llewellyn, to focus on novel approaches to disseminating information within the global medical and pharmaceutical industries. Peter Llewellyn previously founded and built the leading industry portal site, InPharm, which was subsequently purchased by John Wiley & Sons to manage alongside their other industry services, PharmaFile and Pharmafocus.
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