Sponsorships of CE Activities | Sponsor Agreements

A signed Sponsorship Agreement between CE Providers or Joint Program Provider and the organization offering Commercial Support is required for all CE Activities receiving commercial support.

When offering CE Activities it can be beneficial to have organizations provide financial or in-kind support that offsets the cost a CE Provider might incur when delivering a CE Activity, this is often referred to as a 'Sponsorship of a CE Activity.' In accordance with the AGD-PACE and ADA-CERP standards, a signed document that clearly defines the responsibilities of this relationship must accompany any course that is receiving commercial support. Contact your CE Zoom representative to get a Template Sponsorship Agreement to use for your CE Activity. You can see a Sample Sponsorship Agreement below. 

CE Zoom's Policy on Managing Commercial Support

Understand 'The Why' with a bit of History

Definitions

• Key Responsibilities of the CE Provider (or Joint Program Provider)
• Key Responsibilities of the Commercial Supporters

Planning and Designing your CE Activities to Ensure Independence form Commercial Interests

Preventing Commercial and Promotional Conflicts of Interests

Template: Sponsor Agreement

Understand 'The Why' with a bit of History

In 1997 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a policy statement entitled “Guidance for Industry: Industry Supported Scientific and Educational Activities.” This policy states that activities designed to market or promote the products of a commercial company (staffed exhibits, live presentations, advertisements, sales activities) are subject to FDA regulation under the labeling and advertising provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Therefore, activities that are independent of commercial influence and non-promotional are not subject to FDA regulation. 

CE Zoom is committed to maintaining policies that align with the AGD-PACE and ADA-CERP standards regarding the separation of promotional activities from continuing dental education (CDE) activities including those offered by Joint Program Providers. We do so in the following ways: (CERP, (V)) (PACE, XII)

1. CE Zoom Partners LLC, will ensure that all educational activities offered are independent of commercial influence, either direct or indirect, and 

2. CE Zoom Partners LLC, will ensure that all financial relationships between the CE provider (and Joint Program Provider) and commercial entities, as well as all financial relationships between course planners, faculty and commercial entities are fully disclosed to participants. (PACE, (XII.1.b))

Definitions

_{The following definitions as adapted from ADA-CERP Recognition Standards May 2024, AGD-PACE Program Guidelines March 2024 , Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education (2020) and American Medical Association (AMA) Glossary of Terms and Definitions 2021}

Relevant Financial Relationships: For a person involved in the planning, administering or presentation of a continuing dental education activity, CE Zoom considers relevant financial relationships to be financial relationships in any amount, occurring in the last 12 months, that are relevant to the content of the Continuing Education (CE) activity and that may create a conflict of interest. CE Zoom considers relevant financial relationships of the person involved in the CDE activity to include financial relationships of a family member. Relevant financial relationships must be disclosed to participants in CDE activities in writing.

ADA-CERP defines Commercial Interests as: (1) An individual or entity that produces, markets, resells or distributes health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, or (2) an individual or entity that is owned or controlled by an individual or entity that produces, markets, resells, or distributes health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients. Providing clinical services directly to or for patients (e.g., a dental practice, dental lab, or diagnostic lab) does not, by itself, make an individual or entity a commercial interest.

AGD-PACE defines Commercial Interest is: Any proprietary entity producing health care goods or services, with the exception of non-profit or government. AGD PACE does not consider providers of clinical service directly to patients to be commercial interests, unless the provider of clinical service is owned, or controlled by, an AGD PACE-defined commercial interest.

Commercial Bias/Commercial Influence: in the context of Continuing dental education, any activity or material designed to promote a specific proprietary business interest.

Commercial Support: financial support, products and other resources contributed to support or offset expenses or needs associated with a providers's continuing dental education activity. 

Commercial Supporter: Commercial interest which contribute unrestricted financial support, products, and other resources to support or offset expenses and/or needs associated with a provider’s continuing dental education activity. 

Conflict of Interests: a conflict of interest may exist when an individual has an opportunity to affect the content of continuing dental education activities regarding products or services of a commercial interest with which he/she has a financial relationship.

Financial Relationships: Any relationship in which the individual benefits by receiving a salary, royalty, intellectual property rights, consulting fee, honoraria, ownership interest contracted research, or other financial benefit or. The AGD-PACE and ADA-CERP consider relationships of the person involved in the CDE activity to include financial relationships of a family member. Relevant Financial relationships must be disclosed to the participants. 

Key Responsibilities of the CE Provider (or Joint Program Provider):

1. Retain the ultimate decisions regarding funding arrangements for CDE activities as well as the selection of presenters, instructional materials, program content and format. (CERP,  (V.6)) (PACE, (XII-C-(B))

2. Assure that arrangements and displays for commercial exhibits or advertisements do not influence planning or interfere with the presentation and will not be a condition of the provision of commercial support for the CE Activity. (CERP, (V.8)) (PACE, (XII-C-(E))

3. Assure that commercially supported social events at CDE activities do not compete with, nor take precedence over, the educational events.

4. Assure that presentations give a balanced view of all therapeutic options. (CERP, (V.10)) (PACE, (XII-C-(F)) 

5. Instruct presenters/authors to avoid recommending or mentioning commercial products by trade name, using generic terms whenever possible. When reference is made to a specific product by its trade name, reference shall also be made to competitor products.(CERP,  (V.10))

6. Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships: Include in Disclosures any monetary or other special interests that planners, instructors may have with any company whose products are discussed in the CE Activity. (CERP, (V.9))

Key Responsibilities of the Commercial Supporters:

1. Sign a CE Zoom “Commercial Sponsor Agreement” that outlines the terms and conditions of the financial arrangement between the CE Provider (or Joint Provider) and the commercial supporter. The agreement shall state the nature of the support, including dollar amounts and will confirm that they may not have the definitive decision making authority in selecting CE topics, content or instructors. (CERP, (V.7)) (PACE, (XII-C-(C))

2. The contributions (financial or in-kind) given to the CE Provider (or Joint Program Provider) for the CE Activity shall be unrestricted and the CE Provider shall retain the ultimate decisions regarding funding arrangements for CDE activity and assumes the responsibility for the selection of presenters, instructional materials, program content and format. (CERP,  (V.6)) (PACE, (XII-C-(B))

3. Commercial Support of CE Activities must be given by the supporting company to the CE Provider (or Joint Program Provider). The supporting company may not make payments directly to any planner or instructor in a CE Activity. 

4. Agree to the Disclosure of Commercial Support : External funding received must be disclosed to participants in announcements, brochures, educational materials and in the presentation at the beginning of the educational activity. (CERP, (V.6) (V.9)) (PACE, (XII.1.d)

    

Planning and Designing your CE Activities to Ensure Independence form Commercial Interests: 

Providers of CE Activities are to adhere to the follow policies to ensure CE Activities remain unbiased and educationally focused, maintaining separation from Commercial Interests:

1. CE Providers (or Joint Program Provider) shall be responsible for the content, quality, and scientific integrity of all CE activities to include educational objectives, content development and selection of educational methods independent of commercial supporters . (CERP, (V.1) (V.5) (V.11)) (PACE, (XII-C-(A))

2. CE Provider (or Joint Program Provider) shall be responsible for selecting instructors for CDE activities. (CERP (V.1)(V.5))

   1. Program topic selection will be based on perceived needs of dental professional practice  and promote oral healthcare improvements and not for the purpose of endorsing specific commercial drugs, materials, products, treatments, or services. (CERP, (V.2)) (PACE, (XII.1.a))

3. Assure that commercial exhibits do not influence planning nor interfere with the presentation of CDE activities. (CERP, (V.3))

4. Prohibit any product-promotion material or product-specific advertisement of any type in or during continuing dental education activities: (CERP, (V.3 a-f)) (PACE, (XII-C-(D a-f))

   1. For live in-person, physically held CE activities, advertisements and promotional materials cannot be displayed or distributed in the educational space immediately before, during, or after a CDE activity; representatives of commercial interests may not engage in sales or promotional activities while in the physical space or place of the CDE activity. 

   2. For print CDE activities, advertisements and promotional materials will not be interleaved within the pages of the CDE content. Advertisements and promotional materials may face the first or last pages of printed CDE content as long as these materials are not related to the CDE content they face and are not paid for by the commercial supporters of the CDE activity. 

   3. For electronically mediated/computer based CDE activities, advertisements and promotional materials will not be visible on the screen at the same time as the CDE content and not interleaved between computer ‘windows’ or screens of the CDE content. All efforts will be made to implement a clear digital separation and inclusions of verbal and written ‘Beginning’ and ‘Ending’ to educational content, thus enhancing the division between any optional content for the attendee. There shall not be embedded advertising and direct commercial links within the educational content. (PACE, (XII-C-(D))

   4. For audio and video based CDE activities, advertisements and promotional materials will not be included within the CDE. There will be no ‘commercial breaks.’

   5. Educational materials that are part of a CDE activity, such as slides, abstracts and handouts, cannot contain any advertising, trade name or a product-group message.

   6. Print or electronic information distributed about the non-CDE elements of a CDE activity which are not directly related to the transfer of education to the learner, such as schedules and content descriptions, may include product promotion material or product-specific advertisement. 

       

       

       

Preventing Commercial & Promotional Conflicts of Interest 

Separation of Promotional Activities and CE Activities: 

Sponsor Agreement

In accordance with the AGD-PACE and ADA-CERP standards, a signed document that clearly defines the responsibilities of the Commercial Supporter relationship must accompany any CE Activity that is receiving commercial support.

If you are an organization offering commercial support directly to CE Zoom Partners, LLC for a CE Activity given by CE Zoom, contact your CE Zoom representative for an individualized Sponsorship Agreement.

TEMPLATE: If you are a Joint Program Provider who will be working with an organization that wants to enter into a Sponsorship Agreement for your CE Activity, use the TEMPLATE: AGD-PACE Sample Financial Supporter/Sponsor Agreement , to help you design your Sponsor Agreement. Joint Program Providers will be required to submit to CE Zoom the Sponsor Agreement to demonstrate compliance with AGD-PACE Standard XII: Commercial or Promotional Conflicts of Interest. Contact your CE Zoom representative for additional guidance or submit a request to use CE Zoom's Sponsor Agreement for a more detailed template.