Conflict of Interest Policy

As required by the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, all planners, reviewers, presenters, instructors, moderators, authors, and other individuals in a position to control or influence the content of an activity must disclose ALL financial relationships with any ineligible company that have occurred within the past 24 months. Ineligible companies are those that cannot be accredited in the ACCME System and whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Per ACCME, there is no minimum financial threshold for financial relationships; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies. Individuals must disclose regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education.

As the accredited provider, SSO is responsible for identifying relevant financial relationships between individuals in control of educational content and ineligible companies and managing these to ensure they do not introduce commercial bias into the education. Financial relationships of any dollar amount are defined as relevant if the educational content is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.

All identified conflicts of interest must be resolved, and the educational content vetted for fair balance, scientific objectivity, and appropriateness of patient care recommendations. Learners must be informed that all relevant financial relationships have been mitigated prior to engaging in accredited education. Learners must also be informed when off label; experimental/investigational uses of drugs or devices are discussed in an educational activity or included in related materials.

SSO requires all learners receive disclosure information before engaging in accredited education. Disclosure to learners must include:

The first and last name of individual with the financial relationship.
The names of the ineligible companies with which they have relationships.
The nature of the relationships.
A statement that all relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.

Disclosure to learners must not include ineligible companies’ corporate or product logos, trade names, or product group messages.

SSO must inform learners about planners, faculty, and others in control of content (either individually or as a group) with no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

SSO Staff Disclosures

The following SSO staff involved in the planning of SSO 2023 content have no financial relationships with ineligible companies:

Jean Heis
Marisol Claich
Krystine Hansen
Pamela Hayden
Kelley Gazer
Kaya Powell
Anne Woolridge

The following SSO staff involved in the planning of SSO 2023 content has financial relationships with ineligible companies:

Patti Stella
Stocks: Horizon Therapeutics, SPDR Biotech (XBI).

All potential conflicts of interest have been identified, reviewed, and resolved.

Please note, all planners, faculty, and others in control of content will be listed in the individual’s profile within the SSO 2023 Mobile App and on www.sso2023.org.