Understanding the 30-Minute Rule
Several of you have reached out to ACCME asking how best to schedule live CME in conjunction with nonaccredited activities, particularly as it relates to the 30-minute rule outlined in Standard 5.2a. To provide greater clarity, I’d like to share answers that can help you understand the “why” behind the rule and apply it with confidence.
Q1: I’m holding accredited and nonaccredited CME in two separate rooms—can I hold them simultaneously, or do I still need to schedule a 30-minute break between them?
The Standards allow you to separate your accredited education by time or space. When you use separate rooms, you are following Standard 5 exactly as it was intended, making sure that that accredited and nonaccredited CME do not occur in the same “educational space.” Accredited education and nonaccredited activities can happen at the same time, as long as they are held in separate spaces. Additionally, accredited education and non-accredited activities can happen in the same space, as long as they are separated by a 30-minute buffer and the nonaccredited activity is clearly labeled as such.
Q2: Do I need to schedule a 30-minute break between an accredited CME activity and a leadership session scheduled in the same room? What about a department meeting?
You do not need to schedule a 30-minute break if the nonaccredited session is non-clinical and would meet Exception 1 of the exceptions to Standard 3. Check out last year’s Compliance Check on non-clinical education for a refresher on this important exception.
Q3: I know for a fact that my nonaccredited activity was not “developed by or with influence from an ineligible company.” Can I skip the 30-minute rule? The activity is nonaccredited because I was unable to verify some of the speaker’s medical content.
Standard 5.2a states that nonaccredited education “developed by planners or faculty with unmitigated financial relationships must not occur in the educational space within 30 minutes before or after an accredited education activity.” Since your planners or speaker might have relevant financial relationships that would have required mitigation, your activity would need to be separated by a 30-minute break or separate space.
The spirit of Standard 5 is that any potential promotional education or education that does not meet ACCME’s Standards should be separated in time or space from accredited education. As stated in the preamble to ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, “independence is the cornerstone of accredited continuing education.” By putting these strategies in place, you are helping to create a protected space for healthcare professionals to learn, teach, and engage in scientific discourse, free from ancillary activities and nonaccredited education.
