Continuing Medical Education

Overview

All Certified Continuing Medical Education (CME) funding requests are centralized through our Office of Certified Continuing Medical Education (OCME). As a Requester, you should not accept and/or rely on any verbal or written commitments from any DSI employee, except for OCME staff, as to the purported approval of any CME submission. Only the DSI CME Committee is authorized to approve a CME funding request. Further, you should not consider a request approved until you receive official written notification from the DSI OCME acting on behalf of the DSI CME Committee.

All CME funding requests must be submitted via email directly by the Requester. Except for OCME staff and members of the CME Committee, DSI employees may not be involved in the submission,review or notification of any CME funding request. DSI adheres to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) guidelines as well as all federal regulations.

Criteria

DSI considers funding requests based on a number of criteria:

  • Demonstrated unmet educational needs of healthcare providers. 
  • Educational method.  
  • Efficient use of funds.  
  • Availability of funds.  
  • Alignment with DSI’s therapeutic areas of focus.

Compliance

All requests must be in compliance with the following guidelines (as presently established and
as may be hereafter revised) as well as provide fair, balanced and independent content to the
attending healthcare professional(s):

  • Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) Standards for Commercial Support of Educational Programs, or other similar industry standards.
  • Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) Code on Interactions with Medical Professionals.
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Guidance on Industry Supported Scientific and Educational Activities.
  • Office of Inspector General (OIG) Compliance Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.
  • DSI internal policies and guidelines.

Prohibited Organizations

DSI will not provide funding:

  • To an individual. 
  • To any physician or physician practice or group or affiliate thereof.  
  • On behalf of any Customer, patient or other individual.  
  • To applicants who have received past funding and have not provided the required budget reconciliation or have not returned unused funds.  
  • To debarred institutions or groups, including organizations or their employees on probation with the ACCME or other organizations, or on the OIG exclusion list; as well as faculty debarred from a federal healthcare program or on the OIG exclusion list.