Consultation Form FAQs

How do I fill out the consultation form?

1. Navigate to https cpd.sutterhealth.org.

2. Select the "Plan" tab at the top middle of the page.

3. Scroll down the page until you see a teal button that reads "Request a Consultation".

4. This button will direct you to a short consultation form where you can provide details about your activity. 

5. Once the form is submitted, you will be contacted about scheduling an initial consultation session.

Why a consultation form?

The CPD department realized that we would be most effective to our planners if we were involved on DAY ONE of planning. Instead of asking planners to take a few steps backward after doing the majority of their work on their activity, we would like to give meaningful advice from the beginning of the planning process to enhance activity effectiveness. After initial communications and a consultation phone call, CPD will then fill out an activity application for the planner, ensuring the activity meets ACCME Joint Accreditation standards.

Who do I contact if I have questions?
SMMC and PAMF: Eileanoir.Dawson@sutterhealth.org

SRMC and SMCS: Emera.Naia@sutterhealth.org

SHSO and SHVGR: Sean.O'Callaghan@sutterhealth.org

ABSMC and SDMC: Cristina.Ocampo@sutterhealth.org

Any other location not listed above: SHSO.CPD@sutterhealth.org

Financial Disclosure FAQs

Who needs to complete a financial disclosure?
Anyone who has influence on the course content (e.g., planners, faculty, moderators, peer reviewers etc.).

When do financial disclosures need to be completed?
BEFORE the individual assumes their role in the activity. For planners, this means that mitigation of ineligible relationships must occur before planning begins.

What needs to be disclosed?
ALL financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior to 24 months, regardless of whether the relationships are still active or whether the person making the disclosure assumes them to be relevant. There is no minimum financial threshold. Learners need to be notified of the relationships PRIOR to the beginning of instruction.

What is an ineligible company/organization?
Any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products or services used by or on patients. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Advertising, marketing, or communication firms whose clients are ineligible companies
Bio-medical startups that have begun a governmental regulatory approval process
Compounding pharmacies that manufacture proprietary compounds
Device manufacturers or distributor
Diagnostic labs that sell proprietary products
Growers, distributors, manufacturers or sellers of medical foods and dietary supplements
Manufacturers of health-related wearable products
Pharmaceutical companies or distributor
Pharmacy benefit managers
Reagent manufacturers or sellers

In contrast, what is an eligible company (or one that would not need to be disclosed)?
Organizations, including NPOs, whose mission and function are to 1) Provide clinical services directly to patients, 2) Provide education to healthcare professionals, or 3) Serve as fiduciaries to the patients or the public. However, all such organizations must not be otherwise ineligible. (Meaning that is a company provides services that would be considered BOTH eligible and ineligible then the company is considered ineligible by default.) Examples of eligible organizations include, but are not limited to:
Government agencies
Hospitals or healthcare delivery systems
Nursing homes (aka skilled nursing facilities)
Schools of medicine or health sciences

Who determines relevancy?
Individuals must disclose regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education. It is the licensed designee of record of the accredited continuing education provider who must determine relevancy per the Standards. (In other words, a member of the CPD team that meets accreditation requirements to do so as planners, faculty, moderators, and others are considered biased in this assessment.)

What conditions determine relevancy?
Whether the activity is in any way related to the business lines, services, OR products of the ineligible company. (In other words, whether a specific medication or device is discussed in the presentation or the faculty member’s specific area of subject matter expertise is not the only factor as the broad business line of the ineligible company, such as a company that produces interventions for a general disease category that is covered in the presentation, is equally as important.

Who needs to be peer reviewed?
Per accreditation criteria outlined in JAC12 and the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, it is required that any faculty member that has a mitigable ineligible relationship receive a peer review as well as a peer review of all planning decisions for planners with a mitigatable ineligible relationship. However, accreditation also states that it is the gold standard to have ALL accredited continuing education content peer reviewed, regardless of the presence of ineligible financial relationships.

Who can be a peer reviewer?
A subject matter expertise on the topic that does not have any ineligible financial relationships in common with the individual being peer reviewed and ideally does not have any ineligible relationships at all.

What types of relationships are considered to be unresolvable?
Owners (including those who have stock options in exchange for services rendered) and employees of ineligible companies are considered to have unresolvable financial relationships and must be excluded from participating as planners or faculty and must not be allowed to influence or control any aspect of the planning, delivery, or evaluation of accredited continuing education.

What if I disagree, are these terms negotiable?
As these requirements are set by accrediting bodies including the ACCME, ANCC, ACPE, AOA, AAFP, AAPA, COPE, and Joint Accreditation, no individual within Sutter Health has the authority to alter what is required. It is the collective responsibility of all Sutter Health team members to ensure compliance with these criteria to protect our status as an accredited provider of continuing education.

What happens if someone believes that other organizations handle disclosures differently?
We have no control over accreditation compliance of other organizations, and further, not all organizations are accrediting by the same entities. ACCME, Joint Accreditation, and other authors of these Standards are well-known national organizations that have embedded the ethical values of multiple healthcare disciplines into these criteria.

What is the purpose of these requirements?
The accrediting organizations that wrote these requirements explain that: “Since healthcare professionals serve as the legally mandated gatekeepers of medications and devices, and trusted authorities when advising patients, they must protect their learning environment from industry influence to ensure they remain true to their ethical commitments…(educational) activities must serve the needs of patients and not the interests of industry, faculty or planners.” Further, “This independence is the cornerstone of accredited continuing education. Accredited continuing education must provide healthcare professionals, as individuals and teams, with a protected space to learn, teach, and engage in scientific discourse free from influence from organizations that may have an incentive to insert commercial (or other) biases into education.”

What outcomes do these Standards promote?
1. Learners are presented only accurate, balanced, and scientifically justified recommendations.
a. All recommendations for patient care must be based on current science, evidence, and clinical reasoning.
b. All scientific research referred to, reported, or used in content development must conform to generally acceptable standards for experimental design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
c. If new, evolving, or controversial topics are discussed then the content needs to be clearly labeled as such and the faculty must take care to not advocate for or promote practices that are not yet adequately supported by current scientific evidence.
d. If an accredited continuing education provider fails to withhold these Standards or promotes recommendations, treatments, or manners of practicing healthcare that are determined to have risks or dangers that outweigh the benefits or are known to be ineffective then accreditation will be revoked.
2. Learners are protected from advertising, marketing, promotion, or other forms of commercial bias.