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Policies & Procedures

The mission of University of California San Diego Continuing Medical Education (UC San Diego CME) is to provide needs-based education for physicians and health care providers to improve knowledge, competence and/or performance and enable the optimum provision of health care.

The University of California San Diego is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to sponsor continuing medical education programs for physicians.

All CME activities approved by UC San Diego must comply with the following ACCME Essentials and Standards and UC San Diego CME policies:

  1. The content of CME activities and related materials provides balance, independence, objectivity and scientific rigor. All recommendations in CME activities involving clinical medicine must be based on evidence accepted within the medical profession. All scientific research used to support patient care recommendations must conform to generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis.
  2. Planning must be free of the influence or control of a commercial entity and promote improvements or quality in healthcare.
  3. A UC San Diego physician in a full-time position (and/or other clinician) must be the major decision-maker in the CME activity planning. A designated UC San Diego "Course Director" must lead the planning process and be responsible for the completion of the CME Application.
  4. Planning for CME activities must demonstrate the linkage between the documented gaps analysis/needs assessment, desired educational results, learning objectives and outcomes of the education in terms of improved/changed physician practice and/or patient health outcomes.
  5. Anyone involved in the planning of the CME activity (including Course Directors, Planners, Speakers, Committee Members) must complete the Financial Relationship Disclosure Form (to be reviewed and evaluated by the UC San Diego CME, Associate Dean for CME, course director, planning committee, CME Advisory committee and/or UC San Diego medical departments, as appropriate) before credit can be awarded. Anyone failing to disclose will be excluded from participating in the planning and delivery of the activity.
  6. It is the policy of University of California San Diego Continuing Medical Education to ensure that the content of accredited continuing education and related materials is accurate, balanced, objective, and scientifically justified. Education must be free of the influence or control of ineligible companies, and protect learners from promotion, marketing, and commercial bias.  All persons in a position to control the content of accredited continuing education must disclose all financial relationships held with ineligible companies, prior to assuming a role in the activity. Those relationships deemed relevant to the education are mitigated prior to the activity through one of the following strategies, depending on the nature of relationship and the role of the person: 1) divesting the financial relationship, 2) altering the individual’s control over content, and/or 3) validating the planning decisions and/or content through independent peer review. All relevant financial relationships are mitigated prior to the activity and mitigation strategies and necessary steps for implementation are communicated to individuals prior to them assuming their role in the activity. Persons who refuse or fail to disclose are disqualified from participating in the activity.  Activities are evaluated by participants and peer reviewers to determine if the content was free of bias and met acceptable scientific standards. This information is considered in future activity planning. 
  7. All interactions with commercial supporters must be conducted in compliance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education and the UC San Diego CME Policy on Commercial Support. Commercial Support Letters of Agreement must be made out to UC San Diego (as the accredited provider) and fully executed by all parties prior to the start of the activity, or credit cannot be awarded.
  8. Exhibits are allowed at UC San Diego CME activities as long as they are in compliance with all applicable policies and procedures, such as the UC Vendor Policy and the UC San Diego CME Exhibitor Policy. Arrangements for commercial exhibits or advertisements cannot influence planning or interfere with the presentation of the educational activity and may not be a condition of the provision of commercial support for CME activities.
  9. CME activities must be evaluated according to their effectiveness in achieving the learning objectives/desired outcome and their projected/actual impact on clinical practice. UC San Diego CME utilizes a standard evaluation form which should be used unless an exception is requested prior to the start of the activity.
  10. Whenever possible, post-activity follow-up surveys should be conducted to measure changes/enhancements to physician clinical practice and improvements in patient healthcare status.
  11. All CME activities designated for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ by the University of California San Diego School of Medicine must comply with the policies and procedures established by UC San Diego CME and by the ACCME.