Introduction
As an organization accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), The Institute for Functional Medicine is committed to providing educational activities that are free from commercial influence and fully compliant with ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education.
Commercial Support
Definitions
Commercial support is financial or in-kind support from ineligible companies for accredited continuing education.
Ineligible companies are those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, reselling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Examples of such organizations include:
- Advertising, marketing, or communication firms whose clients are ineligible companies
- Bio-medical startups that have begun a governmental regulatory approval process
- Compounding pharmacies that manufacture proprietary compounds
- Device manufacturers or distributors
- Diagnostic labs that sell proprietary products
- Growers, distributors, manufacturers, or sellers of medical foods and dietary supplements
- Manufacturers of health-related wearable products
- Pharmaceutical companies or distributors
- Pharmacy benefit managers
- Reagent manufacturers or sellers
Commercial Support Policy
- Decision-making and disbursement:
- IFM makes all decisions regarding accredited educational content and does not allow input from commercial supporters. Commercial support does not establish a financial relationship between the commercial supporter and IFM employees, planners, educators, and others in control of educational content.
- IFM makes all decisions regarding the receipt and disbursement of the commercial support.
- Commercial supporters cannot pay directly for any of the expenses related to the education or the learners.
- IFM may use commercial support to fund honoraria or travel expenses of educators and others in control of content for those roles only.
- IFM will not use commercial support to pay for travel, lodging, honoraria, or personal expenses for individual learners or groups of learners in accredited education.
- IFM may use commercial support to defray or eliminate the cost of the education for all learners.
- Agreement: The terms, conditions, and purposes of the commercial support will be documented in a Letter of Commercial Support signed by the commercial supporter and IFM (“Agreement”). The Agreement must be executed prior to the start of the accredited education.
- Accountability: IFM will keep a record of the amount or kind of commercial support received and how it was used and produce that accounting, upon request, by ACCME or by the commercial supporter.
- Disclosure to learners: IFM will disclose to the learners the name(s) of the commercial supporters and the nature of their support if it was in-kind prior to the learners engaging in the education. Disclosure will not include the commercial supporters’ corporate or product logos, trade names, or product group messages.
Exhibiting and Sponsorship
Introduction
IFM is responsible for ensuring that accredited education is separate from marketing by companies—including advertising, sales, exhibits, and promotion—and from nonaccredited education offered in conjunction with accredited continuing education. All promotional activities must follow the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Standard 5.
Definitions
Exhibits consist of a company’s presence in our Exhibit Hall at an educational activity in exchange for a fee.
Sponsorship opportunities are promotional opportunities outside of exhibiting in exchange for a fee.
Exhibits and Sponsorship Policy
- Arrangements to allow companies to market or exhibit in association with accredited education must not:
- Influence any decisions related to the planning, educator selection, delivery, and evaluation of the accredited education.
- Interfere with the presentation of the education.
- Be a condition of the provision of financial or in-kind support from ineligible companies for the education.
- IFM will ensure that learners can easily distinguish between accredited education and other activities.
- Live continuing education activities: Marketing, exhibits, and nonaccredited education developed by or with influence from an ineligible company or with planners or educators with unmitigated financial relationships will not occur in the educational space within 30 minutes before or after an accredited education activity. Activities that are part of the event but are not accredited for continuing education will be clearly labeled and communicated as such.
- Print, online, or digital continuing education activities: Learners must not be presented with marketing while engaged in the accredited education activity. Learners must be able to engage with the accredited education without having to click through, watch, listen to, or be presented with product promotion or product-specific advertisement.
- Educational materials that are part of accredited education (such as slides, abstracts, handouts, evaluation mechanisms, or disclosure information) will not contain any marketing produced by or for an ineligible company, including corporate or product logos, trade names, or product group messages.
- Information distributed about accredited education that does not include educational content, such as schedules and logistical information, may include marketing by or for an ineligible company.
- Ineligible companies may not provide access to, or distribute, accredited education to learners.
- Permitted exhibit representatives may attend the educational portion of the meeting but are strictly prohibited from partaking in any sales or marketing activities in the meeting space.
- IFM will not share the names or contact information of learners with an ineligible company or its agents without the explicit consent of the individual learner.