Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education require anyone in a position to control the content of an educational activity or involved in the planning of the educational content including faculty, abstract reviewers, paper presenters/authors, planning committee members and the significant others of those mentioned to disclose all relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to the program participants prior to the start of the activity.

AANS Staff will provide you with Disclosure and Mitigation of Conflict of Interest forms.

• The disclosure forms must be collected by your organization and returned to the AANS prior to the activity. Please see your meeting’s timeline/checklist for deadlines.

• The second slide of each presentation should indicate the speaker’s disclosure(s).
• Verbal Disclosures:
  • For last-minute replacement speakers, you must get a disclosure from the replacement speaker. In addition, if that person has something to disclose, you must mitigate any conflict of interest by completing the AANS Mitigation of Conflict of Interest form. Lastly, the speaker must verbally disclose to the audience even if he/she has nothing to disclose.
  • If the replacement speaker refuses to disclose or if you cannot mitigate the conflict of interest, then that person cannot be faculty.

• Complete a Mitigation of Conflict of Interest form for all individuals who reported a relationship with an ineligible company on their disclosure form. This must be completed by someone other than the individual with the disclosure.
• Send these completed forms to AANS prior to the activity. Please see your meeting’s timeline/checklist for deadlines.
• Refer to the Updated Standards for Managing Conflicts of Interest for further information regarding disclosures and mitigating conflicts of interest.

Failure or refusal to disclose or the inability to satisfactorily mitigate the identified conflict will result in the withdrawal of the invitation to participate.

Disclosure information is divided into two categories: those with financial or other relationships to disclose and those with no significant relationships to disclose.

The AANS and (insert name of non-accredited sponsor) control the content and production of this CME activity and attempt to ensure the presentation of balanced, objective information. In accordance with the Standards for for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education established by the ACCME, faculty, abstract reviewers, paper presenters/authors, planning committee members, staff and any others involved in planning the educational content must disclose any relationship they or their co-authors have with ineligible companies which may be related to their content. The ACCME defines “relevant financial relationships” as financial relationships in any amount occurring within the past 24 months that create a conflict of interest.

Those who have disclosed a relationship* with an ineligible company are listed below:

Examples of financial relationships include employee, researcher, consultant, advisor, speaker, independent contractor (including contracted research), royalties, or patent beneficiary, executive role, and ownership interest. Individual stock options should be disclosed; diversified mutual funds do not need to be disclosed. Research funding from ineligible companies should be disclosed by the principal or named investigator even if that individual’s institution receives the research grant and manages the funds. For more information click here.

Disclose all relevant financial relationships to learners: Disclosure to learners must include each of the following:

1. The names of the individuals with relevant financial relationships.
2. The names of the ineligible companies with which they have relationships.
3. The nature of the relationships.
4. A statement that all relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.

Identify ineligible companies by their name only. Disclosure to learners must not include ineligible companies’ corporate or product logos, trade names, or product group messages.

Disclose absence of relevant financial relationships. Inform learners about planners, faculty, and others in control of content (either individually or as a group) with no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Learners must receive disclosure information, in a format that can be verified at the time of accreditation, before engaging with the accredited education.

Your organization must send their activity’s preliminary program and all advance promotional materials to AANS. Advance promotional materials are any kind of invitation, brochure, flyer, etc. AANS staff must review and approve all activity promotional material prior to printing/distributing. Please reference your meeting’s timeline/checklist for due dates.

Promotional materials must include:

• Joint Providership Accreditation Statement (THIS LANGUAGE CANNOT BE CHANGED OR REWORDED IN ANY WAY.):
  • “This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the AANS and (name of non-accredited provider). The AANS is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.”
• Designation Statement (THIS LANGUAGE CANNOT BE CHANGED OR REWORDED IN ANY WAY.):
  • “The AANS designates this live activity for a maximum of XX AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.”
  • If you do not have a complete agenda yet, please use the following statement in lieu of the above statement: “This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.”
• AANS logo with joint providership statement.
  • This should be placed on the front of your promotional piece.
  • Contact AANS for a downloadable logo to use
• Intended audience
• Meeting agenda and methods of instruction
• Learning objectives
• Faculty listing (including their credentials)
• Disclosure statement:
  • “Before the program, anyone in control of the educational content of this activity will disclose the existence of any financial interest and/or the relationship they have with the manufacturer(s) of any commercial product(s) to be discussed during their presentation. Disclosures will be included in the final program.”

All activity materials must be reviewed and approved by AANS staff. Your organization must send AANS a copy of your final program before printing and distributing it. AANS reserves the right to deny meeting accreditation if any criteria are not met prior to publication.

The final program must include:

• • Joint Providership Accreditation Statement (THIS LANGUAGE CANNOT BE CHANGED OR REWORDED IN ANY WAY.):
    • “This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the AANS and (name of non-accredited provider). The AANS is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.”
  • Designation Statement (THIS LANGUAGE CANNOT BE CHANGED OR REWORDED IN ANY WAY.):
    • “The AANS designates this live activity for a maximum of XX AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.”
  • AANS logo with joint providership statement
    • This should be placed on the front of your promotional piece.
    • Contact AANS for a downloadable logo to use
  • Meeting agenda and methods of instruction
  • Learning objectives
  • Faculty listing (including their credentials)
  • Disclosure listing and information
  • Joint Providership disclaimer:

“The material presented at the (insert meeting name) has been made available by the (insert meeting organization) and the AANS for educational purposes only. The material is not intended to represent the only, nor necessarily the best, method or procedure appropriate for the medical situations discussed, but rather it is intended to present an approach, view, statement or opinion of the faculty, which may be helpful to others who face similar situations.”

“Neither the content (whether written or oral) of any course, seminar or other presentation in the program, nor the use of a specific product in conjunction therewith, nor the exhibition of any materials by any parties coincident with the program, should be construed as indicating endorsement or approval of the views presented, the products used, or the materials exhibited by the (insert meeting organization) and jointly provided by the AANS, or its Committees, Commissions or Affiliates.”

“Neither the AANS nor the (insert name of meeting organization) makes any statements, representations or warranties (whether written or oral) regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) status of any product used or referred to in conjunction with any course, seminar or other presentation being made available as part of (insert meeting name). Faculty members shall have sole responsibility to inform attendees of the FDA status of each product that is used in conjunction with any course, seminar or presentation and whether such use of the product is in compliance with FDA regulations.”

• • Commercial support acknowledgement (if applicable)
    • Need to differentiate between supporters and exhibitors
  • Listing of the names of the planners (includes staff and abstract reviewers)
    • They must be listed by name. For example: “The following persons planned or contributed to the planning of this CME activity:” (then list the names)
    • If listed on disclosure list, need to put “planner” next to the person’s name