Several years ago, the Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry (ARBO) recognized the need for new standards so that industry-supported continuing education would be free from commercial bias.
In mid-December, ARBO released its new COPE Standards for Commercial Support (SCS). ARBO says its aim “is to continue to provide salient and unbiased CE that is not influenced by any company, product or brand.”
The new regulations require that:
• All COPE-accredited CE must be identified, developed and presented free from the control of a commercial interest.
• Every person in a position to impact the content of COPE-accredited CE must disclose all relevant financial relationships.
• For a CE event to be COPE accredited, all commercial support must be in the form of an educational grant to the COPE-approved administrator.
• Commercial exhibits and advertisements must be physically separated from, and not interfere with, COPE-accredited courses.
• COPE-accredited courses cannot deliver specific proprietary business messages and must give balanced coverage to treatment options.
The new standards follow Optometry’s Guidelines for Independent Continuing Education (ICE), released last year by a committee of representatives from SECO International, ARBO, the American Academy of Optometry, the American Optometric Association, the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, and several eye-care companies.
The COPE standards will be adopted and phased in during the course of 2010. There will be a six-month training period from January to June 2010, followed by a six-month implementation phase. “Oversight and enforcement during 2010 will consist of notification of non-compliance and assistance with compliance issues,” ARBO says. “Full compliance to the standards for all COPE-accredited CE will be required as of January 1, 2011.”
Will the new standards reduce industry support for continuing education?
“The COPE SCS does not attempt to eliminate the participation of corporate supporters in optometric educational activities,” ARBO says. “Corporate supporters have indicated they plan to continue supporting the profession.”
That may be true at large national or regional meetings, but support for smaller state and local events may suffer.
“It will impact the number of COPE hours that we present [at CE meetings],” says Pati Mahar, meeting coordinator of the Oklahoma Association of Optometric Physicians. “Equipment companies and labs furnish speakers,” Ms. Mahar says, but these will be eliminated for COPE-approved courses.
“We will still offer the same number of courses, but less will be COPE approved,” she says. “ARBO has narrowed their guidelines and raised fees to the point that it has made it difficult for states to partner.”
On the other hand, the Kentucky Optometric Association implemented a provisional form of these standards and very little has changed, explained KOA meetings director Sarah A. Jones at an ARBO/COPE Administrator Training Workshop in 2008.
“We had eight unrestricted educational grants that we applied for [from industry],” Ms. Jones said. “We received the same amount of money as we always had in the past, but it came to the association first.”
For the full standards, FAQs, and more, go to:
www.arbo.org/proposed_new_standards_for_industry_support.php.