Faculty Agreements
Financial Support
By submitting an application, the applicant is acknowledging that the LAFP accepts commercial support for CME activities and topics for which there is a demonstrated need for family physician education. Inclusion of a financially supported program does not constitute LAFP endorsement of a product or service. All supporting companies are required to sign an agreement to abide by all ACCME Standards for Commercial Support. The understanding of the LAFP is that support of independent CME sessions such as this does not require reporting to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The LAFP has made every effort to ensure that these sessions will not require reporting and has worked with our commercial supporters to make sure they understand why these activities are exempt from reporting.
However, final determination as to the reportability of certain payments to faculty is made by each commercial supporter.
PowerPoint Presentation
All LAFP faculty are required to follow the LAFP’s Presentation Template guide when creating presentations and to use the LAFP PowerPoint template.
A version of the PowerPoint presentation must be submitted electronically to the LAFP by the stated deadline. All PowerPoint presentations will be made available in PDF form to learners through the LAFP mobile app and/or on the LAFP website.
Faculty Expectations
All faculty will sign a faculty service agreement (FSA) and must submit all required forms and presentation materials by stated deadlines. Egregious delays in meeting deadlines may result in replacement as a faculty member, as detailed in the FSA.
Faculty is expected to read and understand all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (www.hhs.gov) guidelines about privacy. Faculty is encouraged to address cultural differences in patient care, when appropriate. Cultural proficiency is an initiative of the LAFP.
The primary goal of each presentation is to cover the stated learning objectives. Additionally, to ensure that learners are receiving the most pertinent information to their practice.
Faculty Involvement in Commercial Forums
All LAFP faculty must understand and agree to the following:
The LAFP discourages individuals speaking at CME events from participating in commercial or promotional exhibits, including, without limitation, Satellite CME Events and Product Theaters (a “Concurrent Event”) held over the same days as the CME activity whether officially sponsored by the LAFP. If the faculty chooses to participate in a Concurrent Event, the faculty member shall promptly notify the LAFP of such participation, which may entitle LAFP to terminate the faculty agreement pursuant to the terms of agreement.
Use of Trade Names
Any reference within slides or verbally from the podium to a product or drug that implies endorsement by the LAFP is prohibited and may have legal ramifications. The use of trade names is prohibited unless several trade names are listed as treatment options and their generic names are also included.
Disclosure of Unlabeled/Investigational Uses of Products
The LAFP believes that it is important for learners to know when unlabeled or investigational uses of commercial products are discussed during a CME activity. Planned discussion of unapproved or investigational uses of products must be acknowledged in writing to the learners prior to the start of the CME activity.
If an unplanned discussion of unlabeled or investigational use of a product occurs (e.g., during a question-and-answer session), the faculty member should inform learners prior to answering the question or responding to the discussion point that the use in question/under discussion is unlabeled or investigational.
Intellectual Properties
The LAFP requires all faculty to certify as to authorship and ownership of content materials and the use of third-party content in every CME educational activity/product. All third-party owned images, photos, pictures, tables, graphs, etc. used in faculty presentation/materials must have copyright approvals from those third parties.
For Annual Assembly lectures, faculty must certify that either 1) they have obtained the right to use and license third-party content for the LAFP’s commercial and educational purposes or 2) they have disclosed to the LAFP the source(s) of the potential copyrighted material in the notes section of their PowerPoint presentations. Due dates for the latter case will be included in faculty service agreements.
For Annual Assembly lectures, it is the role of the LAFP staff to obtain the permissions on behalf of the LAFP when faculty have listed the source of the potential copyrighted material in the notes section of their PowerPoint presentations.
Faculty should be aware that many owners require six to eight weeks to process permission requests. Anything submitted that does not receive approval with reasonable effort and time will be communicated to faculty and will be deleted from the presentation. However, staff will work with faculty to find an alternative solution.
Grant of Rights
All LAFP faculty will be asked to grant the LAFP several rights regarding presentations. Among this list of rights is allowing the AAFP to: record, reproduce, distribute, and sell the content (e.g. Enduring product); produce a handout of the slide deck to provide to learners; and use the faculty’s photo and biography in connection with the presentation.
Ragan LeBlanc