Requirements
General principles
The WMR® provides accreditation for medical education of the highest quality, thus supporting the best and most up-to-date patient care in Europe. In order to guarantee this high-level education, the WMR® has set the following principles:
1. Commercial influence and bias
The education provided must be free of any commercial influence or bias;
The education provided must be free of any form of advertising;
Educational sponsorship must be provided through an unrestricted educational sponsorship;
Educational materials provided entirely by a pharmaceutical or medical equipment industry will not be considered for accreditation;
As a general principle, all scientific content of an activity must be clearly separated from commercial component.
2. Educational needs and learning objectives
A needs assessment has to be performed prior to the educational material;
Learning needs and educational outcomes have to be defined.
3. Conflict of interest and resolution of conflict of interest
Potential or actual conflicts of interest will need to be disclosed by the Organising/Scientific Committee and the faculty;
Any actual conflict of interest will need to be resolved prior to the educational material.
4. Learners’ engagement and feedback
Learners’ attendance will need to be monitored;
Learners are expected to provide feedback on the educational material;
The provider must submit an event report based on the learners’ feedback.
5. Quality control
The WMR® will randomly perform quality controls of any type of accredited events to ensure compliance with WMR® accreditation criteria. The provider will need to provide free unaccompanied access to the entire event to any WMR® appointed official.
6. Other healthcare professionals
The WMR® will consider supporting accreditation for other healthcare professionals (other than medical specialists) in collaboration with their relevant professional bodies.
Who is eligible to apply for CME accreditation?
The WMR® considers for accreditation events submitted by a physician organisation such as:
an individual medical specialist;
a university or hospital department;
a scientific medical society;
a national medical association;
Applications by other types of providers will be considered on a case by case basis.
As long as the application is supported by an appropriate medical specialist in activity who will take responsibility for the application. This person must be registered with his/her National Regulatory Authority.
For any other types of providers, it is possible to co-develop an event: co-development is when two or more organizations, at least one of which must be a physician organisation, work together to develop a CME/CPD activity to be accredited.
Examples of organisations that must co-develop a CME/CPD activity with a physician organisation:
A medical communication agency;
A professional congress organiser (PCO).
Industry Influence
The WMR® will NOT consider for accreditation events where the content format or faculty is influenced by industry, submitted by industry or where the industry is the CME provider.
Types of organizations that are not considered for accreditation:
Pharmaceutical companies or their advisory groups;
Medical/surgical devices companies;
Medical/surgical software companies;
Industry.
