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Annual Meeting participant guidelines

The AAOS has long taken seriously the matter of physician self-disclosure of potential conflicts in all of its continuing medical education activities. Requirements that presentations at its Annual Meeting be free of commercial bias and that presenters complete a financial disclosure statement have been in effect for several years. Over the years, the guidelines for participants have been strengthened and expanded to ensure appropriate disclosure of conflicts of interest and to eliminate commercial bias.

After each Annual Meeting, the Annual Meeting Committee and its various subcommittees conduct a review and update or refine participant guidelines. The following participant guidelines apply to the 2010 AAOS Annual Meeting:

  • All authors for a paper, poster, or scientific exhibit, and all faculty for instructional course lectures and symposia must individually submit their own disclosure information.
  • All presenters must include a slide with their mandatory financial disclosure immediately after their first/title slide.
  • Course and symposium handouts may not include the name of any commercial entity or product. No specific device, implant, instrument, or drug name should be used.
  • Moderators may announce a faculty member’s documentation of the potential conflict as noted in the final program or ask the faculty member directly if such a conflict exists.
  • Moderators are instructed to challenge any statement they perceive as commercially biased, by asking a speaker for peer-reviewed evidence of a statement or asking whether other products or treatments effect similar outcomes.
  • Commercial funding of any poster presentation is expressly prohibited; funding of poster presentations is limited to individuals, hospitals, and educational institutions.
  • Scientific Exhibits must display a statement indicating the highest level of conflict related to the exhibit immediately below the exhibit title and listing of authors’ names.

In addition, the following penalties apply to individuals who fail to complete the required disclosure:

  • Failure by one or more authors of a Scientific Exhibit to submit disclosure by the deadline will result in withdrawal of the Scientific Exhibit from the meeting.
  • Faculty members who fail to complete the required disclosure will not be allowed to speak and will be replaced.
  • Failure by one or more authors of a podium or poster presentation to complete the required disclosure by the deadline will result in withdrawal of that paper or poster from the meeting.

AAOS Now
November 2009 Issue
http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov09/cover2-1.asp

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