BLOGSCAN - Who Actually Organizes Medical Conferences and Continuing Medical Education?

On the Carlat Psychiatry Blog, Dr Daniel Carlat delved more into the role of medical education and communication companies (MECCs) in medical education. He found a MECC prospectus for a psychiatry conference ostensibly presented by a very prestigious medical school. In it, the MECC solicited "independently supported symposia," and offered to prepare for such symposia "enduring materials," which appear to be polished monographs, which can be read for CME credit. The charge to the sponsor for preparing such an article was a cool $103,000. Funny, I used to think that doctors and medical academics put together medical conferences and continuing medical education. But look through the section on "partner responsibilities" in the MECC's prospectus, and see how little there is for the prestigious academic institution to do, and how much is actually done by the MECC. How naive I was.