RSS Planning Guide

This guide is intended to outline the processes, policies and procedures necessary for the development and execution of a quality continuing medical education activity that is needs driven, evidence based and fully compliant with the ACCME Accreditation Criteria / Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. Per the ACCME, “a regularly scheduled series (RSS) is a series of multiple, ongoing sessions, primarily planned by and presented to the organization’s professional staff.” This activity format is most often used by hospitals and health systems for repeated, ongoing educational sessions” such as grand rounds, tumor boards, and morbidity and mortality conferences. 

• The activity must not simply be meant to provide “education for education’s sake.” It should be produced to increase physician knowledge/competence, change physician performance (influence behavior), and/or improve patient outcomes.
• Therefore, the activity must be planned to address an identified professional practice gap and the educational needs that underlie the gaps.
• The format of the activity should consider appropriate teaching and learning methods that will best achieve the learning objectives.
• The target audience must be identified, and the educational content delivered must be directly related to what the intended audience does in their professional practice. It must also be linked to specific physician competencies.
• The activity must be evaluated to determine its effectiveness at closing the educational gap.
• Planning must be independent of commercial influence. All persons, including planning committee members and faculty presenters, who are in a position to control CME content must disclose all relevant financial relationships with a commercial interest.

1. Develop the Activity Plan

1. Identify specific practice gaps and educational needs to inform your planning of topics and selection of speakers. The ACCME defines a practice gap as “the difference between what the professional is doing or accomplishing compared to what is achievable on the basis of current professional knowledge.” What is the problem you are trying to address with your activity?
2. Provide the sources you used to identify these practice gaps and educational needs. These could be newly published clinical practice guidelines or journal articles, quality improvement data, departmental discussion minutes, or other documentation of learner needs. How do you know the practice gap is present?
3. Write specific measurable objectives of what you believe the learners will be able to know how to do (competence), do (performance), or impact (patient outcomes) as a result of your CME activity. These learning objectives should be designed to close the gap you identified in Step 1. What are you seeking to change? [write the objective from the perspective of what the learner will do and not what the teacher will teach].
4. Choose an educational format to achieve your objectives and close your identified gap. CME activities should be designed for active learning. Consider utilizing cases, hands-on practice, and ancillary tools to help learners realize these goals. What type of activity do you think will best achieve your goals?
5. Create an evaluation plan to measure learner competence and/or skill; performance; or patient outcomes. How will you know if you achieved your goals?
   • Skills/competence is typically measured through surveys—conducted at the end of the activity, which measures an intent to change.
   • Performance may be measured through peer observation, submission of case studies, or follow-up surveys about actual change in practice—usually conducted 2-4 months after the activity.
   • Patient outcomes may be measured through quality improvement data, chart audits, or patient surveys. 
6. Link your plan to one or more Institute of Medicine or ACGME Physician Competencies. 

2. Complete the annual Event Application

• You will need to schedule a "Pre-application for Accrediting Continuing Medical Education" meeting in order to receive your application link to enter our learning management system, CME Tracker.  For RSS reapplying for the upcoming calendar year, we will hold a series of these meetings by Department in September and October.
• Use the information derived from Step 1 to complete the application in our CME Tracker web-based system.
• Upload signed financial relationship disclosure forms for ALL planning committee members.

3. The Event Application will be reviewed by the CME staff and Director.

1. Select and confirm session dates PRIOR TO activity (no less than 6 months prior to start date). Submit along with CAF a completed Calendar Template with session dates, speaker name and credentials, session/topic titles, session times.
2. Review ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education.
3. Disclose his/her financial relationships with ineligible companies[1] via the Financial Relationship Disclosure Form.  If the Course Director has financial relationships with any ineligible company, these must be mitigated or managed by Emory CME staff and the Chair of the Department prior to developing the RSS activity.  There should be a written description of the process used to mitigate or manage all conflicts of interest. Use the Mitigation Worksheet and upload to SharePoint.
4. Select knowledgeable individuals to serve on a Planning Committee for the RSS.  All members of the Planning Committee must disclose their financial relationships with ineligible companies via the Financial Relationship Disclosure Form. If any member of the Planning Committee has financial relationships with any ineligible company, these must be mitigated or managed by the Course Director and Chair of the Department working with the OCME staff prior to developing the RSS activity.  There should be a written description of the process used to mitigate or manage all conflicts of interest. Use the Mitigation Worksheet and upload to SharePoint.
5. Document the processes and resources that the planning committee used to identify professional practice gaps and to determine the educational needs of the target audience. Provide committee minutes and documents (journal articles, national practice guidelines, etc) used to document the gaps and needs.
6. State the identified needs and learner objectives as well as how the RSS educational activity will meet the learners’ needs.
7. Identify appropriate, knowledgeable speakers and in the invitation letters to them, identify the content and the objectives of their presentation. Upon identification of potential speakers, disclosure forms should be emailed to speakers as soon as possible. Faculty are given two weeks from date of receipt to provide their disclosure information. While coordinators are responsible for sending out disclosure forms, Course Directors may have to provide support in ensuring that all potential faculty have sent their disclosure information to the coordinator in a timely fashion. Laggards jeopardize the ability of the OCME to mitigate disclosure information and ultimately, provide approval for the activity. Mitigation of potential conflicts of interest requires strict adherence to compliance of the ACCME’s Standards of Integrity and Independence. Collect financial disclosure information from each speaker and upload to your SharePoint file folder prior to the session’s occurrence.
8. Once disclosure information has been collected from the speaker by the coordinator, the Course Director must mitigate or manage all identified conflicts of interest for speakers who have disclosed any/all financial relationships with any ineligible companies. There should be a written description of the process used to mitigate or manage all conflicts of interest. Upload the Mitigation Worksheet to your SharePoint folder. OCME staff can assist with this process. The learners must be informed of any disclosures made by speakers BEFORE the start of each session.
9. (Optional) Identify potential Commercial Supporters; if commercial support (grant) is to be obtained, this must be done in conjunction with the OCME, and signed Letters of Agreement must be completed before accepting the support.
10. It is the responsibility of the Course Director to decide on how the activity is to be evaluated. Directors may choose to use the evaluation that the OCCE program provides or to augment the questions that are asked in the standard evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation form is to assess how learners will change their practice as a result of the activity, and whether commercial bias was evident during the activity. (See sample evaluation)
11. Provide oversight to the RSS coordinator to ensure there is a file for each session that contains all material related to the session including:
    1. The invitation/correspondence with the speaker
    2. Marketing flyer or promotional piece used to advertise your activity
    3. The objectives of the presentation
    4. The speakers’ completed disclosure forms
    5. How any relevant financial relationships were mitigated or managed
    6. How the learners were informed of the disclosure
    7. The completed evaluation forms and analysis of the results
    8. List of attendees (NOTE: keep list of attendees as a back up to the text in attendance/ online credit claim)
    9. Signed and dated Letter of Agreement for Commercial Support (if applicable)
    10. Page from course materials where you acknowledge the receipt of commercial support (if applicable)
12. Complete evaluation of prior year’s series before submitting for approval for next calendar year. Include summary of prior year’s evaluation in following year’s CAF.
13. Communicate with CME Director regarding any series updates such as change in Course Medical Director, medical education needs, or time and location of series; cancellation or rescheduling of a session; etc.
14. Providing material to document compliance with all requirements for any of the sessions for which information is requested by OCME.
15. RSS are approved on an annual basis each calendar year. Information regarding documentation required to close-out the previous approval period as well as instructions for the renewal will be distributed to the identified course director and department administrative coordinator approximately 2 months prior to the end of the approval period.

The OCME will monitor the RSS for compliance with ACCME policies on a quarterly basis. If the required documentation to demonstrate ACCME compliance is not received in a timely manner, your activity(ies) will be at risk of not being accredited or accreditation will be withdrawn.

[1] The ACCME defines ineligible companies as those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

1. Collaborate with your activity director on all required documentation.
2. Meet annually with the Emory CME staff to review administrative changes/updates. 
3. Review ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education
4. Complete RSS Coordinator Tutorial Modules (Coming soon!)
5. Manage the completion & submission of CME certification documents.
   • Activity planning document (Course Approval Form – (CAF) application). The CAF MUST be received and approved PRIOR TO the start of your series each calendar year. Each year a new CAF must be submitted by November 1 that includes a summary of evaluation data from the prior year.
   • Collect and upload to SharePoint all Planner Financial Disclosure forms and submit as part of the CAF.
   • Collect and upload to SharePoint all Speaker Financial Disclosure forms in advance of each session.
   • Provide Session Calendar with all dates, speakers, topics, times and location/format on the RSS calendar template.

6. Manage the regularly scheduled series sessions.
   • Confirm session with faculty and obtain required session documentation.
   • Communicate with planners regarding schedules and speakers (frequency determined by site); work with liaisons to secure speakers for sites.
   • Collect Faculty financial disclosure forms and presentation slides
   • Finalize identification and mitigation of all planner and speaker relevant financial relationships and upload to your SharePoint folder(s). (Mitigation Worksheet)
   • Utilize your SharePoint folder for session management.
   • Email announcements with session information and save copy to your SharePoint file. *Session approval required from CME office PRIOR TO Provide copy of announcement in your SharePoint file.
   • Have appropriate AV equipment available for speakers.
   • Share “Session Event ID” with all attendees (CME staff will provide)
   • Manage session attendance.
     • Provide instructions for text-in attendance or claiming online credit to your audience (Text in Attendance)
     • Keep a backup of attendance for your files. It is the responsibility of the Coordinator to keep a roster of attendees as back-up for each session using the spreadsheet template (Participant Roster)

7. Maintain backup documentation which includes maintaining the credit files (electronic) for 6 years. Although text in attendance and online credit claim is available, we may have to refer to you for backup documentation should a learner request credit that we may not have on record.
8. At end of your RSS series, request attendance reports.
9. Communicate with CME Director/ CME RSS Program Coordinator regarding any series updates such as change in Course Medical Director, medical education needs, or time and location of series; cancellation or rescheduling of a session; etc.
10. Answer general questions from learners related to the series.
11. Provide reports and data from evaluation results. (Upload to your SharePoint file)
12. Work closely with the Course Director and the CME office should an issue or concern arise.
13. Other duties related to the RSS Activity as needed by the Course Director.

If the required documentation to meet with ACCME compliance is not received in a timely manner, your activity(ies) will be at risk of not being accredited or accreditation will be withdrawn.

1. An application is required for each regularly scheduled series annually, not each session.
2. An RSS must be officially approved before CME credits can be awarded.
3. Emory School of Medicine OCME cannot retroactively provide CME credits as mandated by the ACCME.

Each RSS meeting is required to:

• Address a demonstrated practice gap (clinical/professional problem), identify educational objectives and desired outcomes, and present commercially unbiased educational content.
• Have a dedicated course director and department coordinator (administrator) to provide administrative support. Administrative support is required to prepare meeting documentation to ensure compliance with all CME policies and procedures.
• Have a flyer prepared prior to each meeting that includes required CME information
  (an announcement template is provided).
• Completed flyers must be distributed/displayed to all meeting participants prior to the start of each meeting (SEE ACCREDITATION SLIDES). Flyers must be uploaded to your SharePoint file(s) PRIOR to each meeting. Failure to comply may result in withdrawal of CME credits.

RSS Monitoring and Improvement Plan

All RSS meeting documentation MUST be received by the CME department PRIOR to the meeting/session date. If documentation is not received within this time frame, an appropriate intervention will take place as identified below. In addition, the following  interventions may occur if noncompliance is identified at any point during the CME approval period:

• 1st Intervention: Communication/education session with department coordinator(s).
• 2nd Intervention: Communication/education session with department coordinator(s) and course director(s).
• 3rd Intervention: Withdrawal of CME credits from applicable meeting session(s).
• 4th Intervention: Withdrawal of CME credits from applicable meeting session(s) as well as all remaining meeting sessions in the series through the remainder of the approval period.