FINANCIAL INTEREST DISCLOSURE
As an accredited provider by the ACCME, ASCRS must ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all its individually or jointly provided activities.
All individuals participating in an ASCRS CME activity must disclose any financial interest or relationship with an ineligible company that produces, markets, sells, resells, or distributes ophthalmic products/devices/drugs or services discussed in an educational presentation or lack thereof. Financial interest can include such things as grants or research support, consultant, stockholder, member of speaker’s bureau, , etc. The intent of the financial interest disclosure is to provide information to the ASCRS Program Committee and ASCRS Clinical Education department to design and implement a balanced, independent, and scientific educational activity. The Relevant Financial Interest documents in the Annual Meeting website, Real-Time Program and Meeting App provide information to attendees so they can make their own judgment regarding the interest or relationship and the materials presented.
Potential faculty in ASCRS-sponsored and jointly provided CME activities, including instructors, authors, producers, co-instructors, coauthors, co-producers, presenters, panelists, etc., must provide a complete listing of ALL financial relationships relevant to ophthalmology—not just those related to a specific talk—in the financial interest disclosure database. Any relevant financial relationship that occurred within the previous 24 months must be reported. Those who have no financial interests to disclose should indicate “none” in the database. Disclosure information will be kept on file and used during the calendar year in which it was collected for all CME-bearing activities.
To submit an abstract for the ASCRS Annual Meeting, you must complete the Financial Interest Disclosure and ASCRS Faculty CME Review in the database. All lead faculty must notify all co- instructors/co-authors/co-producers that they must enter their financial interest disclosure information. Abstract submissions with incomplete Financial Interest Disclosures and/or ASCRS Faculty CME Review will not be accepted.
ASCRS FACULTY CME REVIEW
To ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor, all faculty members who participate in the ASCRS Annual Meeting Program or other ASCRS CME activities are required to review the ASCRS Faculty CME Review Policies and Procedures, including:
• Planners, presenters, moderators, and panelists for general sessions and symposia
• Lead instructors and co-instructors for instructional courses
• Lead authors/presenters of scientific papers
• Lead authors of scientific posters
• Lead producers/presenters of scientific films
• Leaders of expert roundtable sessions
This system ensures ASCRS’ continued compliance with the ACCME’s guidelines and ensures that ASCRS provides exceptional quality continuing education.
SUBMITTING FINANCIAL INTEREST DISCLOSURE AND ASCRS FACULTY CME REVIEW
Go to https://ascrs.confex.com/ascrs/ficme26/cfp.cgi and click on Submit Financial Interest Disclosure and ASCRS Faculty CME Review
Control of Content
ASCRS considers presenting authors, not co-authors, to be in control of the educational content. It is ASCRS’ policy and traditional scientific publishing and professional courtesy to acknowledge all people contributing to the research, regardless of CME control of the live presentation. Though they are acknowledged, co-authors do not have control of the CME content and their disclosures are not published or mitigated. Other individuals considered in control of content include:
- Planners, chairs, co-chairs, moderators, presenters, and panelists
- Lead instructors and co-instructors for instructional courses
- Lead authors/presenters of scientific papers and posters
