2026 WSDA Faculty Information Form

Glossary of Terms

Ineligible company:

The ACCME defines an “ineligible company” as those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Financial Relationships

Financial relationships are those relationships in which the individual benefits by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest (e.g., stocks, stock options or other ownership interest, excluding diversified mutual funds), or other financial benefit. Financial benefits are usually associated with roles such as employment, management position, independent contractor (including contracted research), consulting, speaking and teaching, membership on advisory committees or review panels, board membership, and other activities from which remuneration is received, or expected.

Relevant Financial Relationships

ACCME focuses on collecting information about all financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. There is no minimum financial threshold; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies. Individuals must disclose regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education. Inherent in any amount is the incentive to maintain or increase the value of the relationship. The ACCME classifies financial relationships as “relevant” if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.

Conflict of Interest

Circumstances create a conflict of interest when an individual has an opportunity to affect CME content about products or services of an ineligible company with which he/she has a financial relationship. The ACCME considers “content of CME about the products or services of that commercial interest” to include content about specific agents/devices, but not necessarily about the class of agents/devices, and not necessarily content about the whole disease class in which those agents/devices are used.

Please choose from the following natures of relationships:

• Consultant
• Speaker's Bureau
• Grant/Research Support
• Principal Investigator
• Board Member
• Stock Shareholder (self-managed)
• Full-time / part-time Employee / Owner *
• Other: (Describe)

We would like to enlist your help to ensure that educational content is fair and balanced and that any clinical content presented supports safe, effective patient care. This includes the expectations that:

• All recommendations for patient care in accredited continuing education must be based on current science, evidence and clinical reasoning, while giving a fair and balanced view of diagnostic and therapeutic options.
• All scientific research referred to, reported, or used in accredited education in support or justification of a patient care recommendation must conform to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Citations of the work are recommended.
• The content and/or presentation of the information with which I am involved will promote quality or improvements in healthcare and will not promote a specific business interest of a commercial interest.
• Recommendations involving diagnosis and treatment discussed in the presentation are based on evidence which is accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindication in the care of a patient.
• Although accredited continuing education is an appropriate place to discuss, debate, and explore new and evolving topics, these areas need to be clearly identified as such within the program and individual presentations. It is the responsibility of the accredited provider to facilitate engagement with these topics without advocating for, or promoting, practices that are not, or not yet, adequately based on current science, evidence, and clinical reasoning.
• Content cannot be included in accredited education if it advocates for unscientific approaches to diagnosis or therapy, or if the education promotes recommendations, treatment, or manners of practicing healthcare that are determined to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits, or which are known to be ineffective in the treatment of patients.
• I understand that COMMUNITY HEALTH NETWORK CME staff will need to review my presentation and/or content prior to the activity, and I will provide educational content and resources in advance, as requested.
• I understand that commercial entity corporate names or logos should not appear on my slides or handouts.
• I understand that COMMUNITY HEALTH NETWORK CME staff may be attending the event to ensure that my presentation is educational, and not promotional, in nature.
• If I am discussing specific health care products or services, I will use generic names to the extent possible. If I need to use trade names, I will use trade names from several companies when available, and not just trade names from any individual company.
• If I have been trained or utilized by a commercial entity or its agent as a speaker (e.g., speaker’s bureau) for any ineligible company, the promotional aspects of the presentation will not be included in any way with this activity.
• If I am presenting research funded by a commercial company, the information presented will be based on generally accepted scientific principles and methods and will not promote the commercial interest of the funding company.
• If I am presenting research studies, I will include weaknesses and strengths of each study, in addition to harms and benefits of specific products. I will also discuss studies presenting different conclusions about the product, if available.

If you have any questions regarding your ability to comply, please contact Jeff Carter, CME Coordinator, at 317-621-3845, or by email at jcarter3@ecommunity.com.