January 3rd 2018 MedTech Europe, AdvaMed, APACMed and Mecomed published their joint statement on the Phase-Out of Direct Sponsorships of Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) and Health Care Organisations (HCOs).
The revised industry codes of ethics put forward and published by these Trade Associations strengthen their commitment to HCP training and education, business ethics and integrity.
These revised codes introduced, effective January 1st 2018, the elimination of direct sponsorship of HCPs to attend third-party educational events, such as medical congresses and conferences.
What does this mean to you?
These new codes of ethics and the elimination of the direct sponsorship of HCP means that you may no longer select, or influence the selection of specific HCPs to attend third-party educational events; you may no longer directly pay for or arrange an HCP’s travel, accommodation and/or registration to such third-party events; nor may you reimburse the expenses of specific HCP attendees to third-party educational events.
Indirect sponsorship or educational grants are still allowed, as are company organised specific meetings intended to educate HCPs.
The goal is that you collaborate and interact with HCP/Os in a transparent way and ensuring that HCPs and HCOs continue to make independent decisions regarding patient care and treatment.
Do you have an HCP/O Transparency Policy? Do you control and monitor all collaborations and interactions with HCP/Os? Have you considered how you can monitor compliance throughout your entire organisation?
Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.