Commercial Support Information

The full requirements for commercial support can be found by following the link below:

AANS CME activities are strictly educational and NOT promotional.

• ACCME requires the separation of education from all promotional activities, materials and messages.
• Payment and arrangements for advertising and exhibits must be separate business transactions and cannot be conditions for commercial support.
• Promotional materials are not allowed to be displayed or distributed within the scientific program education space before, during or after the educational activity.
• If equipment is supplied for an educational activity, it must be for demonstration and educational purposes only.

Educational Grant

An educational grant is used to support the educational components of a CME activity. It can be in the form of a monetary grant or an "in-kind" donation.

• Educational grants support expenses for developing and presenting a CME activity.
  • They can be used to pay for the expenses of faculty as well others who are working on the activity.
  • They can also be used to pay for meals, audio/visual, honoraria and other meeting related expenses.
• Educational grants must go directly to the joint provider organization.
• A Letter of Agreement is required documentation for the commercial support.
  • All Letters of Agreement must be signed and dated by the commercial supporter prior to the start of the activity.
  • All Letters of Agreement must be approved, countersigned and dated by your AANS staff representative prior to the start of your CME activity.
  • Commercial funds contributed in support of a specific activity are to be used for that activity per the Letter of Agreement.
• There can be levels of designation with different categories and amounts for commercial support.
  • You CANNOT offer commercial support levels combined with exhibit space or other marketing and/or advertising opportunities as part of these levels of commercial support.
• A complete listing of all the commercial supporters must be included in your final program book.
  • Commercial support must be listed separate from exhibits both in the final program and in the budget.
  • Advertisements and promotional material CANNOT be interleafed within the pages of your program book, because it contains CME content.
  • You CANNOT put corporate logos on the final program
• A commercial supporter can ask for an accounting of how their commercial support has been spent and/or ask that unused funds be returned.
• If funds are received after the completion of the program without acknowledgement to learners before the activity occurs, or prior knowledge by AANS, then the funds will need to be returned to the commercial supporter.

Exhibit Income

Exhibit income is not considered commercial support because the exhibitor is given booth space in exchange for their payment. It is often used to help offset general costs related to an activity.

• Exhibit income does not require a Letter of Agreement.
• Payment and arrangements for exhibits must be separate business transactions and cannot be conditions for commercial support.
  • The company can pay for the grant and exhibit with one check, however, the actual Letter of Agreement for the educational grant must not include the exhibit funds.
• Exhibits must be kept physically separate from the CME education space and exhibit social events must not take place during the CME activity.

Revenue received from exhibits must be recorded separately from revenue received from commercial support in the activity budget.