AAOS Tests New Disclosure Model

Richard N. Peterson, JD

If you are attending a session in McCormick Place Room S406 (or Rooms N427 or S103b) at the 2013 Annual Meeting, you’ll notice something different this year.

To enhance its disclosure program, the AAOS is piloting the use of two screens during selected educational events. One screen will display the primary education material and the other screen will show complete disclosure information—not just disclosures deemed “relevant” to the presentation—for each of the speakers.

The Committee on Outside Interests, Central Program Committee, and Central Instructional Course Committee developed this disclosure pilot project in response to comments from attendees that the disclosure slide traditionally used during Annual Meeting educational sessions passed by too quickly to be read and only disclosed those relationships the speaker identified as being relevant to the topic. Some attendees questioned why speakers did not disclose all relationships to allow attendees the benefit of a full, open, and unbiased discussion.

Scrolling information

The disclosure pilot project will cover 12 symposia, 24 paper sessions, and 6 Instructional Course Lectures (ICLs) in three different rooms. Faculty and authors will continue to disclose their industry relationships in the traditional manner, with a disclosure slide they personally develop at the beginning of their educational session.

In rooms selected for the enhanced disclosure project, however, an additional screen will project a scrolling presentation that includes complete disclosure information reported by faculty, authors, and co-authors through the AAOS Orthopaedic Disclosure Program. This information has been prepared by AAOS staff. The disclosure information will be on a continuous scroll, throughout the presentation or session.

The pilot project will include all symposia, paper sessions, and ICLs held in rooms N427, S406, and S103b during the times noted:

Today
Room N427, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Room S406, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Wednesday
Room N427, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Room S103b, 10:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Room S406, 8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Thursday
Room N427, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Room S103b, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Room S406, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Friday
Room N427, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Room S103b, 8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Room S406, 8:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Please provide feedback
After each session, attendees and presenters will be asked to answer a short survey or will be asked by show of hands to express their views of this disclosure option. For example, did it provide additional information? Was it disruptive? Did it increase transparency during the presentations?

After the Annual Meeting, AAOS will collate this information and evaluate whether the additional disclosure information enhanced the education program and was helpful to attendees.

AAOS endeavors to maintain its position as a premier provider of musculoskeletal continuing medical education. All feedback will be carefully considered in the development of future educational opportunities. Your participation in this pilot disclosure program will enable the AAOS to provide attendees with the best educational sessions possible.

Richard N. Peterson, JD, is the AAOS General Counsel.

2013 Annual Meeting News
Tuesday through Friday, February 19 – 23, 2013.
http://www.aaos.org/news/acadnews/2013/AAOS27_3_19.asp