AAOS Mandatory Disclosure Policy

For Governance Groups and Continuing Medical Education Contributors

Philosophy

In order to promote transparency and confidence in the educational programs and in the decisions of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (hereinafter collectively referred to as “AAOS”), the AAOS Board of Directors has adopted this mandatory disclosure policy.

The actions and expressions of Fellows or Members providing education of the highest quality or in shaping AAOS policy must be as free of outside influence as possible and any relevant potentially conflicting interests or commercial relationships must be disclosed. Because the AAOS depends upon voluntary service by Fellows and Members to conduct its educational programs and achieve its organizational goals, this disclosure policy has been designed to be realistic and workable.

The AAOS does not view the existence of these interests or relationships as necessarily implying bias or decreasing the value of your participation in the AAOS.

Obligation to Disclose

Each participant in the AAOS CME program or member of the AAOS Board of Directors, Board of Councilors, Board of Specialty Societies, Councils, Cabinets, Committees, Project Teams or other official AAOS groups (collectively “AAOS governance groups”) has the obligation to disclose all potentially conflicting interests. Each participant in the AAOS CME program or in AAOS governance groups must disclose relevant activities or relationships through the AAOS mandatory disclosure program.

Using a uniform form approved by the AAOS Board of Directors, participants are responsible for providing information to the AAOS disclosure database regarding the nature of their relationships with commercial entities relating to orthopaedics. Participants are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their information. In addition, participants have an obligation to review and update their personal information in the AAOS disclosure database at least once annually. It is recommended that participants note any changes to the AAOS disclosure database as soon as possible after they occur.

A failure of a participant to participate in the AAOS mandatory disclosure program will result in the participant being asked not to participate in the AAOS CME program or in the AAOS governance group.

AAOS Disclosure System

Once the AAOS mandatory disclosure program is operational, a list of all participants in the AAOS CME program or AAOS governance group, along with their disclosures, will be included in all meeting materials. This will be prepared by assigned AAOS staff. In addition, this information will be available to other Fellows and Members in a password-protected section of the AAOS website.

In addition, participants in AAOS governance groups (except for the Board of Councilors and Board of Specialty Societies) have an obligation to indicate any potential conflicts they may have during discussions affecting their personal interests during the meeting of the AAOS governance group. At each meeting of the AAOS governance group, members of the group will be reminded that full disclosure must be made of any potential conflict of interest when a matter involving that interest is discussed.

The chair of the governance group shall also have the prerogative of requesting a participant to provide further information or an explanation if the chair identifies a potential conflict of interest regarding that participant. Based on the information provided in the AAOS disclosure database and/or upon a further review, the chair of the AAOS governance group may determine that the participant shall:

• Disclose the conflict and continue to participate fully in the AAOS governance group’s deliberations
• Disclose the conflict, but abstain from discussing and voting on the matter; or
• Disclose the conflict and leave the room until the matter has been fully discussed and acted upon.

If one of the latter two actions is taken, it should be reflected in the minutes of the AAOS governance group’s meeting.

adopted: 02/07

revised: 03/08